A new member for Team Avatar
by Ampire8
Summary: Its difficult to keep a low profile. It's even harder when you're famous. It's even harder when you're part of Team Avatar. For her, low profile is out the window. All credits go to their respectful owners.
1. Chapter 1

I'll give you some background on who I am. My name is Hotaru and my brother was called Zuko, my sister was called Azula, we were all fire benders. I ran away when I was young, I ran to the southern water tribe and learnt to survive in the wilderness. I had a pet tamed polar bear dog which I had a rope that she would let me ride her with, she was my best friend, her name was Sadie. I lived with otter penguins, they were fun to ride. I had long dark brown, almost black hair that went down to my waist; I tied it to the side in a braid all the time. I had on water tribe clothes but they were ripped and slightly dirty. I had very big, dark, brown eyes flecked with gold. I was very short and only thirteen years old. I usually didn't fight with bending; I fought with a bow and arrow, which was basically how I survived all this time, although I did have a knife that I used some of the time as well.

One day I was sitting and eating some fish that I had caught when I saw a very bright light beam shoot up into the sky. I got up and let out a shrill whistle, Sadie plodded out. I unfurled the rope from around my waist and hopped on her back. I rode towards the light. I saw a young girl and boy from the water tribe, then I saw an even younger boy dressed in air nomad clothing? He was passed out. But, they were extinct; the damn fire nation killed them all so that the avatar wouldn't be born. I ran over and said "Who is this?" The older boy turned around.

"This is a creepy kid we found, I am Sokka and this is my sister Katara." He said. Katara turned the boy around and led him down on the ice. Sadie walked over to the younger boy and licked his face. Sokka screamed like a girl, I raised an eyebrow "Really?" I said in an unamused voice. I saw the younger boy start to wake up, he was groaning and it looked like he hadn't been awake in a while. He had silver eyes, and a bald head that had a big arrow tattoo on it.

"I need to ask you something." The boy said quietly.

"What?" Katara answered.

"Please, come closer." He mumbled.

"What is it?" Katara said.

"Will you go penguin sledding with me?!" He asked in a spritely way.

"Uh…sure." She said.

"Come on, we can take my polar bear dog!" I chirped. He grinned and nodded. Sadie poked her head near to the boy. Sokka screamed again "Seriously? Again." I said. The boy pushed himself up with what looked like air bending.

"What's going on here?" He said, rubbing his head.

"You tell us!" Sokka said, pointing a spear at him. I pulled out my knife.

"You hurt him, and I kill you." I said sweetly.

"Oh please, you couldn't kill a warrior like me." He said. I grabbed his hand and flipped him; I put my knee on his back and bent his arm around so he couldn't get up. I waited for a few moments before letting him get back up. I brushed myself off and said "I think I can."

"Anyway, how did you get in the ice?!" Sokka asked "And, how aren't you frozen?!" He started poking the boy with the end of his spear.

"I'm not sure." The boy said confusedly, he shooed the spear away. I heard a growling sound, it wasn't Sadie but she started growling as well. I grabbed her muzzle shut and shushed her. He started clambering up the ice and into a crater like space. "Oppa!" He said gladly "Are you alright? Wake up buddy!" I started to climb the ice to see what he was doing. When I got to the top I sat down and gasped, it was a sky bison, but, they were also meant to be extinct, I was so confused right now. Sokka and Katara came around the edge and also gasped. I slid down the ice wall. Oppa woke up and licked the boy, who was about 12 years old. I saw Sadie run around the corner, tripping Sokka up with her tail, she ran to Oppa. I was afraid she was going to attack him but she just licked him. "She likes him." I said.

"What is him exactly?" Sokka asked.

"It's a Sky Bison." I said, scratching the side of Oppa.

"Yeah, this is Oppa, my flying bison." The boy said.

"Right, and this is Katara, my flying sister." Sokka said sarcastically.

"If you're going to make a joke then at least make it funny." I said.

"Do you guys live around here?" The boy asked all of us.

"Don't answer that, did you see that crazy beam of light, he was probably trying to signal the fire navy." Sokka said. I froze, should I tell them I was the daughter of fire lord Ozai? Nah, I will if I have to.

"Suuuure, I'm sure he's a spy for the fire navy. You can tell by that evil look in his eye." Katara said sarcastically. The boy smiled, I laughed. "You are so paranoid; anyway, you never told us your name." She said to the boy.

"I'm Aaaa-" He started to sneeze. He sneezed towards the ground and flew up into the air. He then fell down and slid down a slope and came to a standing halt "I'm Aang," he said "So, you're Sokka, you're Katara…and you are?" he turned to me.

"Oh, I'm Hotaru." I smiled.

"You just sneezed…and flew 10 feet up into the air!" Sokka said.

"Really? It felt higher." Aang said. Katara gasped.

"You're an air bender?" Katara asked.

"Sure am!" He chirped.

"Giant light beam, flying bisons, air benders, I think I got midnight sun madness, I'm going home to where stuff actually makes sense." Sokka said, he walked to the edge of the ice berg and saw that he was surrounded by water.

"If you guys are stuck, Oppa and I can give you a lift?" Aang said, he jumped onto the bison.

"We'd love a ride! Thanks!" Katara said. I ran around with Katara and was helped up by Aang.

"Oh no, I am not getting on that fluffy snot monster." Sokka said.

"Are you hoping some other kind of monster will come along and give you a ride home, you know, before you freeze to death?" Katara said. I put two fingers in my mouth and whistled twice, Sadie bounded onto Oppa onto the big saddle that was on him. Sokka started to object but then he sighed and got onto Oppa with us. When he was on Aang said "Okay, first time flyers hold on tight! Oppa, yip yip!" Oppa's tail went up and then when it went down he took off. Oppa then fell into the water and started to swim.

"Come on Oppa! Yip yip!" Aang said, tugging on the reigns.

"Wow, that was truly amazing." Sokka said.

"Oppa's just tired." Aang said happily "Just a little rest and he'll be soaring through the sky. You'll see!" Katara started to look around, Aang was smiling at her non-stop, it was a little creepy.

"Uh, why are you smiling at me like that?" She asked, also sounding very creeped out.

"Oh, I was smiling?" he said. I laughed at his expression.

"Where do you live?" Katara asked me.

"Me, oh, um, I live with the penguins, on my own, I don't have a family so I stay with the animals." I answered her. She could see that I didn't want to talk about it anymore so we carried on swimming in silence. The silence didn't ask long. Katara asked Aang "I've been thinking, with you being an air bender, if you had any idea what happened to the avatar?"

"Uh, oh, no, I didn't know him, well I mean, I knew people that did, but I didn't, sorry." Aang said.

"Okay, sorry, I was just curious, good night." Katara said.

"Sleep tight." Aang said. Katara led down. Sadie bent down and put her head on her paws. I scratched her behind the ear before I led down against her fur; she was warm so I always slept against her.

I was woken up right before we got to the village. Katara said "You can stay with us if you want?"

"No, it's fine; I have a home with the penguins." I said, I didn't want her to do anything for me until she knew who I was. When we got there I woke Sadie up and hopped off Oppa with her. I got Aang down and out her on Sadie. We then walked to Katara's tent and laid Aang down so that he could get some more sleep. Katara talked to the rest of the villagers and I just sat on the edge of the village, combing Sadie's fur. I got up to go and see what was going on in the village. I saw that Aang was awake. "Hey sleepy head." I mocked. He had just pulled his head out of some sort of snow building. Sokka said "Great, you're an air bender, Katara's a water bender! Have fun."

"You're a water bender?!" Aang asked.

"Sort of, not yet." Katara said.

"All right, no more playing, come on Katara, you have chores." An old woman said, I was guessing that she was Katara's grandmother or something. I was playing around with Aang when Sokka walked over and said "I need to train the new recruits, I will need help."

"Sure." I shrugged before going around the back of a building with him. There were a lot of little boys, the oldest looked about 4 years old.

"Now listen men, it is important that you show no fear when you face a fire bender, in the water tribe, we fight to the last man standing. For without courage, how can we call ourselves men?" Sokka said.

"By being actual men?" I suggested.

"I gotta pee!" One of the boys said.

"Listen, until your fathers return from being at war, they're counting on you to be the men of this tribe!" Sokka complained. I rolled my eyes.

"Look, if you fight, you kick, you aim for the solar plexus, the weakest point in the torso," I pointed to where the solar plexus was on Sokka. "Or, if it's a dude, just kick him in the balls, both are equally effective." I said.

"No potty breaks!" Sokka said angrily.

"But I really gotta go." The boy pleaded.

"Go on." I smiled.

"Who else wants to go?" Sokka asked. All the boys put their hands up. Sokka face palmed and let them all go. I went with the boys to make sure that none of them would do anything wrong. Aang came out of the bathroom and said "Geez, everything freezes in there."

"Ugh, get him outta here!" Sokka said to Katara, who was now with him "This lesson is for warriors only!" The boys were playing with Oppa, sliding down his tail.

"What is wrong with you?! We don't have time for fun and games!" Sokka yelled angrily "Especially not with a war going on!"

"What war?" Aang asked. I frowned; The Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes had been at war with the Fire Nation, not for a short while but for 100 years. The Air Nomads had been wiped out. "What are you talking about?" he asked again.

"You're kidding right?" Sokka said.

"Penguuuuiiiins!" Aang yelled, he had seen some penguins behind us. I turned around and ran with him. We followed the penguins until we found where they all were. I saw my den from where we were standing. I walked down to the den and grabbed the cooked fish I was eating earlier. I chucked some to Aang and said "Welcome to my home." He smiled and ate the fish in one bite. I shoved my fish down and said "Let's go and ride some penguins!" He grinned and nodded. Katara was there when we came out of the den. Aang started following around penguins and tried to catch one for sledding. I said "That's not how you do it." I put a fist to my mouth in a certain position and blew, making the noise that the penguins make. At least twenty of the penguins came and huddle around us. I said "Take your pick." and gestured to the penguins around us. While Aang was choosing a penguin Katara came down. Katara said "I'll help you choose one if you teach me water bending?"

"Deal, except, I'm an air bender, not a water bender, isn't there anyone else who could teach you?" Aang said.

"No, you're looking at the only water bender in the south pole." Katara said sadly.

"Well, a water bender needs to master water, what about the North Pole?" Aang said "There's another tribe up there, maybe someone there can teach you."

"Maybe, but we haven't had contact with our sister tribe for a long time," Katara said "It's not exactly turn right at the second glacier, It's on the other side of the world."

"But he has a flying bison." I said.

"Yeah, we can fly you to the North Pole! We can find you a master." Aang suggested.

"That's-I mean-I don't know. I have never left home before." Katara said.

"Well, just think about it." Aang said "In the mean time, let's catch some penguins!" I nodded and chose my penguin with Katara and Aang. We hopped on the penguins and started to slide along on them. We rode around curves and did some jumps; I even taught them some tricks. When we raced we went fast down a valley and over some hills then through a tunnel, Aang used air bending and won though. `We were laughing when we got to the bottom of the large valley. We let the penguins go and walked forwards, we had seen something interesting.

"Whoa, what is that?" Aang asked.

"It's a fire nation ship." I said angrily.

"And a very bad memory for my people." Katara said. Aang started to walk forwards to the ship. "Stop, we're not allowed to go near it."

"Rules were made to be broken." I shrugged and followed Aang.

"The ship could be booby trapped." Katara warned.

"If you want to be a bender then you have to let go of fear." Aang said, I nodded in agreement. Katara walked forward cautiously. We all walked forward towards the abandoned Fire Nation ship. We climbed up some shattered ice and into a hole in the ship's side.

The abandoned corridors and rooms were scary and I could see Katara get more scared with every step, I just liked the thrill. We got to an even darker room with weapons of all kinds. "This ship has haunted my tribe since Grangran was a little girl; it was part of the fire nation's first attacks." I frowned, I can't believe my nation and my father would do this.

"Okay, back up, I have friends all over the world, even in the fire nation, I've never seen any war." Aang said worriedly.

"Aang? How long were you in that ice?" Katara asked.

"I dunno, a few days maybe?" Aang replied.

"I think it was more like a hundred years." I said.

"What?! That's impossible; do I look like a hundred and twelve year old man to you?" Aang said to me.

"Think about it, the war is a century old, you don't know about it because somehow, you were in there that whole time?" I said.

"It's the only explanation." Katara said.

"A hundred years?" Aang said in surprise, he fell backwards and sat down. I sat down next to him and put my hand on his shoulder. "Let's just go." I said. I grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet. We walked out of the room and kept walking around the ship. "Come on guys, let's go back now, it's so creepy." Katara quivered.

"Pfff, scaredy cat." I muttered under my breath.  
>"Huh?" Aang said, his foot pulled on a piece of string, a grated door fell down, locking us in the room. "What's that you said about booby traps?" Aang asked Katara. Loads of cogs turned and steam flooded the room. I looked out of the window, a flare had gone off. "Oh no." I said. There was a hole in the roof from where the flare fired out of. Aang jumped up carrying Katara bridal style before reaching down and helping me. When I got out I whistled loud and clear. Sadie came leaping forward; she was a really fast polar bear dog. I jumped on and let Katara and Aang come on as well. All I could think about was 'damn, if my brother had seen that flare then we're dead!'<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

When we got to back the whole village were waiting outside (so about twenty people), they all wore worried or angry expressions apart from the children. "Yaaaay! Aang's back!" The kids said. They all ran up and hugged Aang's legs. Sokka walked forward "I knew it! You just signalled the Fire Nation with that flare! You're leading them straight to us, aren't you!"

"Aang didn't do anything, it was an accident." Katara defended.

"yeah, we were on this ship and there was this booby trap, and well-um, we boobied right into it." Aang said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Katara, you shouldn't have gone on that ship." Her grandmother said.

"That was my fault, I persuaded her, I'm sorry ." I said.

"We could all be in danger!" her grandmother said.

"I know, I'm sorry, but Katara's not to blame." I said.

"Yeah, it was our entire fault." Aang said.

"HAH! The traitor confesses!" Sokka pointed at us "Warriors away from the enemy, this foreigner is banished!" The kids walked away from Aang.

"Sokka, you're making a mistake." Katara said angrily.

"No, I'm keeping my promise to dad; I'm protecting you from threats like those two foolish kids." Sokka said.

"Neither of them are our enemies!" Katara pleaded "Don't you see, Aang has bought us something we haven't had in a long time…fun."

"Fun?! We can't fight fire benders with fun!" Sokka said loudly.

"You should try it some time!" Aang said happily.

"Get out of our village, NOW." Sokka said, growing even angrier with ever word.

"Grandmother, please," Katara said "Don't let Sokka do this."

"Katara, you knew going on that ship was forbidden, Sokka is right. I think that the air bender and the outsider should leave." her grandmother said.

"Fine! Then I'm banished too!" Katara said "Come on you two, let's go!" Katara grabbed our elbows and dragged up along.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Sokka asked.

"To find a water bender trainer, Aang is taking me to the North Pole." Katara retorted.

"I am?" Aang asked "Great!"

"Katara!" Sokka yelled "Would you really choose those two children over your own tribe, your own family?" Katara stopped.

"I'm sure I speak for the both of us when I say we don't want to come between you and your family. Family is the most important thing to everyone, I would know, I left mine." I said.

"You two are still leaving?" Katara asked. I nodded and walked with Aang to Oppa. Sadie hopped onto the saddle and I prepared to do the same. "This is goodbye?" Katara asked.

"Thank you for penguin sledding with us." Aang said.

"Where will you go?" Katara asked.

"I guess I'll go back home and look for the air benders, wow, I haven't cleaned my room in a hundred years, not looking forward to that." He used air bending to get on top of Oppa. Sadie stretched her paw down and I grabbed it and was hauled up by her. I sat down and got ready to leave.

"It was nice meeting everyone." Aang said.

"Let's see your bison fly now air boy." Sokka mocked.

"Come on Oppa, you can do it!" Aang encouraged Oppa "Yip yip!" Oppa snorted and got stood up.

"Yeah! I didn't think so." Sokka said. One of the children ran over crying.

"Aang, don't go, I'll miss you." She said.

"I'll miss you too." Aang said very sadly. I looked over the edge.

"I thought I finally found a home." I said "I guess not." Sadie stuck her head over my shoulder and licked away a tear. I smiled sadly and buried my head in her fur.

"Come on boy." Aang said, finally looking away. Oppa started to walk away. We ended up stopping a little away from the village. I said "I liked it there, I felt like they were family."

"Yeah, me too." Aang said. We relaxed sadly for a while, moping around. Suddenly I heard a loud 'crash!'. I jumped up and said "We need to go and see if they're okay." Aang nodded. Aang got onto Oppa and I got onto Sadie. She was tired so wasn't going as fast. It was cold so I pulled up the hood on my coat. When we got near the village Aang hopped on a penguin with his staff and rode so I did the same thing. We rode to the village, when we got there we saw a ship had crashed into the village and there were fire nation soldiers. Aang and I rammed into the leader of them from behind with the penguins. He fell backwards and his helmet flew of, he went head first into the snow. We got off of the penguins. I waved and said "Hi Katara, hi Sokka."

"Hi Aang, Hotaru." Sokka said, sounding more than a little embarrassed.

"Wait, Hotaru?" The leader of the soldiers said. I looked around and gasped.

"Z-Zuko?" I stuttered. My brother nodded.

"Sister." Zuko said. I stood up and got into my fighting stance. He lunged first with a fist. I grabbed it and twisted; I shoved him down to the floor and bent his arm behind his back. He forced his arm down which caused me to tumble over the front of him. I got up and kicked at him, sending a powerful blast of fire at him. He fell back a little bit. "Brother? Sister?" Katara said angrily "You're a fire bender!" She yelled.

"Yes, but can we get these guys away from the village, then you can decided what to do with me!" I said. Sokka nodded. Aang then used air bending to send snow onto all of the soldiers. "Looking for me?" Aang said.

"You're the air bender? You're the avatar? I've spent years preparing for this encounter, training, meditating, and you even group up with my dishonourable sister. You are just a child!"Zuko fumed.

"Well you're just a teenager." Aang said, confused. Zuko punched a ball of fire towards Aang, I jumped in and stopped it before sending my own fire back at him. Zuko kept sending fire at Aang and I. "I see you haven't lost your touch." Zuko said to me.

"I see you're still an idiot." I retorted "Why, why go after the avatar, you say that it is to regain your honour, but you lost that yourself, father never took that from you." Zuko growled and started sending even more fire at Aang. The fire almost hit the villagers. Aang looked back and said "What if we go with you, will you leave the village alone." Aang said.

"What?!" I yelled. Zuko nodded and stood up, he gestured for his guards to take hold of us. Two guards walked over and grabbed my arms. I kicked the back of their knees and floored them "I can walk myself." I said angrily.

"Don't do this!" Katara yelled.

"Don't worry Katara, it will be okay." Aang said.

"Take care of Oppa and Sadie until we get back! Her favourite is salmon!" I yelled.

"Head a course to the Fire Nation. I'm going home." Zuko commanded. We walked inside, the door of the ship closed. I looked at Aang and said "It will be okay." He smiled sadly and nodded. Once we sailed up we were taken to the top deck where I saw someone familiar. I ran over and hugged him "Uncle Iroh!" I said happily.

"It's been a while." Iroh said. I nodded and was taken hold of by some guards again. I sighed and rolled my eyes. Zuko took hold of Aang's staff and said "This will make an excellent gift for my father. I suppose you wouldn't know a father, being raised by monks. Take the Avatar and sister to the prison hold; make sure they get separate cells."

We were taken below deck and marched down the hallways. "So, I guess you've never fought an air bender before. I bet I can take you both with my hands behind my back." Aang said. I laughed; he sure was a funny little lad. "Silence." The guard in front of us growled. As we came to a door Aang started to sneeze, I had to bite back a laugh. When he sneezed he slammed the guard in front into a door and the forced back the guard behind him. I ran out after him onto the top deck. I grabbed the knife in my boot and sliced the ropes binding my wrists. Aang blasted some wind into the door in front of us. We ran through the corridors, we knew that the whole ship would know soon. We took a left and saw three guards with swords. "You haven't seen my staff around have you?" Aang asked them. They got ready to attack. Aang ran past them and left me with them. One of them started to attack with a sword. I grabbed it off of him and took down the rest of the guards before running after Aang. When I got to him I grabbed his wrists and cut the rope with my sword. We looked in each room for Aang's staff. We finally got to my brother's room. We ran in, Aang went to grab his staff. The door closed behind us. I gripped the sword harder.

"Looks like I underestimated you two." Zuko said, he shot fireballs at us. We dodged them all. I grabbed a banner and threw it to Aang. Aang wrapped it around Zuko before grabbing his staff. Zuko broke out of the banner. Aang and I circled Zuko while he circled us. Aang used air bending to squish Zuko between a mattress and the wall, then the mattress between the ceiling. While Zuko was lying face down Aang and I legged it out of the door.

We got outside again. Aang ran off the platform on his glider and I sent fire down, keeping me up in the air. Suddenly I saw Aang go down to the deck, Zuko had grabbed his ankle. I stopped fire bending and let myself fall to the floor. I pulled Aang to his feet and prepared to fight. I heard a familiar grunt; I looked around "Oppa!" Aang exclaimed.

"What on Earth is that?" Zuko said. We defended against Zuko for a few moments before Aang's staff was wacked out of his hands and he was knocked off of the boat. I ran and grabbed the staff before jumping off the boat and diving into the freezing water myself. I saw a glowing light in the water and frowned. Suddenly I saw Aang, his arrow tattoos and his eyes were glowing white. He grabbed me and flew out of the water using water bending. We landed back on the boat; Aang took down everyone on board with water bending. He then fell to the floor "Aang!" I said worriedly. I bent down and slung his arm around my shoulder. Oppa landed and Katara and Sokka ran over as well. Aang woke up "Hey Katara, hey Sokka, thanks for coming." He said.

"Well I couldn't let you have all the fun." Sokka said. I passed Aang's staff to him. We all got onto Oppa. Sokka said "Yip yip!" Oppa flew away from the now awake fire nation soldiers. I saw Iroh. "Bye uncle!" I chirped before being licked by Sadie. I smiled and said "Yeah, I missed you too girl." Zuko and Iroh sent some fire at us, Aang jumped up and sent a wave of air to retaliate, it knocked the fire to the side, the fire hit some ice and the ice then covered the ship. I cheered and waved along with Aang, Sokka and Katara.

I sat against Sadie and docked into her fur. Katara said "Maybe you're not as bad as the rest of them."

"Thanks." I whispered sadly.

"What's wrong?" Sokka asked.

"I'm stuck as a damn fire bender! I hate being this, humans, benders, spirits! We should all just be squirrels or something." I complained. Katara nodded.

"Why didn't you tell us that you were the Avatar?" Katara asked.

"Because I never wanted to be." Aang said.

"But Aang, the world has been waiting for the avatar to return and finally put an end to this war." Katara said.

"And how am I meant to do that?" Aang said.

"According to legend, you need to first master water, then earth, then fire, right?" Katara asked.

"That's what the monks said." Aang answered.

"That's what the sprits told me." I said.

"If we go to the North pole then you can master water bending." Katara said.

"We can learn it together!" Aang exclaimed.

"And Sokka, I'm sure you'll be able to knock some fire bender heads on the way." Katara said to him.

"I'd like that." Sokka smiled lazily "I'd really like that."

"And Hotaru, you can help us defeat the fire nation." Katara said to me. I nodded and grinned.

"Then we're in this together." Katara said.

"Okay, but before I learn water bending, we have some serious business to attend to."Aang pulled out a map and pointed to different spots "Here, here and here."

"What's there." Katara asked.

"Here, we'll ride the hopping lamas. Then way over here we'll ride on the backs of giant coy fish, then back over here we'll ride the hog monkeys, they don't like people riding them, but that's what makes it fun!" Aang explained.

"Wait, earlier, you said 'that's what the spirits told me.'?" Katara said to me. I nodded.

"Yeah, the spirits, they've offered to let me control any element, can't you see them?" I said.

"No, nobody can." Katara said "So, if you wanted to you could control water?" she asked. I nodded.

"Can you go down to the water." I asked Aang, he nodded and took Oppa down to the water. I shrugged off my jacket. Katara gasped at my bare arm, covered in burns. I said "I'd rather not talk about it." I then proceeded to dive into the water and try and summon a water spirit. I finally saw one and asked it "Please bless me with the power of water."

"Are you prepared to take on the weight of another element, you have never asked this before." The spirit said. I nodded, I had no idea what that meant though. The spirit tapped my forehead with a tentacle. I felt burning in my already burnt arm. I screamed, air bubbles flew out of my mouth. I swam back up to the surface and hopped back onto Oppa. I held my arm and looked down "My arm, it's being burnt all over again." I said in complete pain. Katara wrapped some material around my arm and Sadie licked it. I smiled and tried not to move my arm so much. I said "I've been blessed with the element of water." I stood up and moved my non-burnt arm, I water bended, but I wasn't very good at it, at all. I sat down and winced from the pain in my arm. Katara said "This has been done before, there was a man in my village, he could talk to spirits, he controlled all the elements, but he only hurt innocent things with it, one day he went crazy and started talking about spirits that were out to get him, then, he died."

"Well, I better not misuse it." I said. I smiled at Aang and said "Maybe I can become half avatar?"

"That would be so cool!" Aang exclaimed. I sat down and put my fists together; I closed my eyes and let my mind clear.

"What are you doing?" Sokka asked.

"Meditating." I answered. Sokka went to go and speak again but I shushed him. How could someone other than the avatar bend all four elements, it seemed unfair, but it's also frickin cool!


	3. Chapter 3

We had been camping in different spots for about a week, we were heading to the southern air temple, Katara, Aang and I had been practicing our water bending, we still weren't very good at it though. The morning before we got there I was really worried, what if the fire nation did kill all of the air benders? Aang may either take his anger out on me or he may pin the blame on me. "Wait until you guys see it! The southern air temple is one of the most beautiful places in the world." Aang said, getting Oppa ready to leave.

"Aang, I know you're exited but it has been 100 years since you've been home." Katara warned.

"That's why I'm so excited!" Aang said excitedly. I laughed and bathed my burnt arm in some water. "You never told us how you got that." Katara asked.

"Like I've said a million and one times, I don't want to talk about it." I said. I got out of the water and dried off my clothes. I tied my hair into a side braid and packed my stuff. First I rolled up a sleeping bag that Sokka and Katara had brought with them. "Katara is right; a lot can change in the temple in that amount of time."I added.

"I know, but I need to see it for myself." Aang said. I walked over to Sokka and poked him with a stick. He was still asleep in his sleeping bag and his snoring was getting annoying. "Get up! We're going to the air temple now!" I yelled at him.

"Ugh, sleep now, temple later." Sokka groaned. Aang grinned and took the stick I was holding. He moved it up and down the sleeping bag and said "Sokka! Wake up! There's a prickle snake in your sleeping bag!" I covered my mouth and stifled a laugh.

"AHHHH! GET IT OFF! AHHHH!" Sokka yelled, jumping around.

"Good, you're up." I said smugly. I gave Aang a high five and said "Nice."

"Yeah! Let's go!" Aang said. I got Sadie onto Oppa and climbed on myself with my bag. Once we were flying Sokka's stomach started rumbling. He groaned and said "Ugh, I'm so hungry."

"You should have gotten up earlier; you could have had some of the fish I caught." I said. Sokka's stomach rumbled again. He said "Quiet stomach, I'm trying to find us some food." I rolled my eyes and stroked Sadie, she didn't really like flying on Oppa. Sokka found a bag and started fishing around it. He frowned and brought his gloved hand out; there were only three crumbs on his palm. "Who ate all my blubbered seal jerky?!" Sokka asked.

"Oh, that was food? Hotaru and I used it to start the fire last night." Aang said.

"You what?!" Sokka said "Awwww, no wonder the flames smelled so good."

"Look! The Patola Mountain Range!" Aang exclaimed. I stretched my neck up and looked over Sadie's shoulders. There were big thin cone like mountains. "We're almost there." Aang said happily. I chewed my lip, every metre we came closer, the more nervous I got and the more excited Aang got.

"Aang, before we get to the air temple, I want to talk about the air benders." Katara said.

"What about 'em?" Aang asked.

"I just want you to be prepared for what you might see," Katara said "The fire nation is ruthless, they killed my mother, they could have done the same to your people."

"Just because no one has seen an air bender doesn't mean that the fire nation has killed them all. They probably escaped." Aang said hopefully.

"I know it's hard to accept." I said.

"You guys don't understand, the only way to get to an air temple is on a flying bison, and I doubt the fire nation has a flying bison, isn't that right Hotaru?" Aang asked.

"That's true, we never have." I said, maybe we haven't killed them all. We flew around the sides of mountains and over them until we got to the temple. Aang was right, it was beautiful. "There it is the southern air temple." Aang said in awe.

"It's amazing!" Katara and I said in unison. We landed at the base of the air temple and started to walk, I left Sadie with Oppa. We walked up a rock path that was snaking up the side of the mountain.

"Where can I get something to eat?" Sokka asked.

"Hey! You're lucky enough to be one of the first outsiders to ever visit an air bender temple and all you can think about is food?!" I complained.

"I'm just a simple guy with simple needs." Sokka muttered bitterly. We got to the end of the path and looked over the temple's courtyard.

"That's where my friends and I would play air ball, and over there is where the bison would sleep and-" He sighed and cut off.

"What's wrong Aang?" I asked.

"This place, it used to be filled with monks and lemurs and bison, now there's just a bunch of weeds. I can't believe how much things have changed." Aang said sadly.

"Uh-so-this air ball game, how do you play?" Sokka asked. Aang's face lit up as he jumped off the side of the cliff face we were on. I jumped after him and used fire to slow myself down towards the bottom. Aang grabbed a ball that was lying in some snow and hopped on a pole. Poles stuck out of the ground at different heights; there was a goal like board at each end of the square of poles. Sokka stood in front one of the goals. Aang asked if I wanted to play but I shook my head and sat to the side with Katara. Aang used air bending to make the ball hover just over his hand. Sokka was finding it difficult to even stand up straight on the pole he was on. Aang threw the ball high and then sent it forward with a powerful blast of air. It bounced from pole to pole and then hit Sokka in the chest and took Sokka with it through the goal. I laughed and cheered.

"Making him feel better is putting me in a world of hurt." Sokka said. Sokka saw something in amongst the weeds, he gestured us over. We walked over. What I saw made me want to punch a hole through something. It was the helmet of a fire bender. "Fire nation." I growled.

"We need to tell him." Sokka pleaded.

"Aang! There's something we need to show you." Katara called to Aang.

"Sure! Coming!" Aang yelled back. Aang started to run over. Katara looked from Aang to the helmet and back again, she frowned and then pulled down some snow on top of Sokka and hid the helmet in the process. "What is it?" Aang asked.

"Uh, just a new water bending move I learned." Katara said nervously.

"Oh, okay, nice one, but enough practicing, we have a whole temple to see." Aang said, he turned around and walked away.

"You can't protect him forever." Sokka said glumly brushing snow off of his shoulders. We walked up to the temple in silence. When Aang was far away Sokka said "You can't pretend fire benders weren't here, they were."

"I can for Aang's sake." Katara said.

"This isn't just one of his friends Katara; this is his entire culture, destroyed." I said.

"If he finds out that the fire nation destroyed his home, he'll be devastated." Katara said.

"Hey guys! I want you to meet somebody," Aang gestured to a statue of an air bender "Monk Gyatso. The greatest air bender in the world, he taught me everything I know." Aang bowed at the statue, as if remembering something about him.

"You must miss him." Katara said comfortingly.

"Yeah." Aang said lazily. He started walking somewhere.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"The air temple sanctuary, there's someone I'm ready to meet." Aang said. I followed him up a set of stairs and into the temple. We soon got to a door with tubes and what looked like the end of trumpets.

"Nobody could have survived in there for 100 years." Katara said.

"It's not impossible; I survived in an ice berg for that long." Aang said.

"Fair enough." I shrugged.

"Whoever's in there might help me figure out this avatar thing." Aang said happily.

"And whoever's in there may have a delicious assortment of meats." Sokka said his mouth was watering; I took a step away from him. Sokka ran at the door, he slammed right into it. He pounded on it with his fists before sliding to the floor, defeated. "I don't suppose you have a key?" Sokka asked Aang.

"The key is air bending." Aang grinned. Katara, Sokka and I took a few steps back, Aang walked to the door. He took a deep breath in and when he let it out he blasted air into the openings with his hands. The air travelled around the tubes and unlocked the big wooden door, they creaked open and let us into the room. "Hello?" Aang called into the dark room. When no answer came we walked into the room. It was really dark and I couldn't see much. I lit a flame on my palm. I looked forward again. "AH!" I yelled in surprise.

"Is it a fire bender?!" Sokka yelled pulling out his boomerang,

"No, it's a statue." I said. I lit a bigger and brighter flame and a warm light engulfed the room.

"Awwww man, only statues, where's the meat?!" Sokka complained.

"Who are all these people?" Katara asked. I had a pretty good idea but I wasn't sure.

"I'm not sure," Aang frowned "But I feel like I know them somehow…Look! That one's an air bender." He pointed to a statue with the same arrow tattoo on its head.

"And this one's a water bender." Katara said, pointing at a statue of a man wearing a bear hood.

"Look, they're in a pattern! Air, water, earth, Fire! That's the avatar cycle; I think these are your past lives Aang." I said.

"Wow, there are so many." Aang said in awe, he looked around the hall, there were many on the ground and statues lines the walls in patterns and spirals.

"Past lives? You guys actually believe in that stuff?" Sokka asked.

"It's true; when the avatar dies he is reincarnated into the next nation of the cycle." Katara said to Sokka. Aang started to stare into one of the statue's eyes.

"Snap out of it." I said and shook him back to reality.

"Huh?" he said sleepily.

"Who is that?" Katara asked.

"That's Avatar Roku, the avatar before me." Aang said.

"You were a fire bender, no wonder I didn't trust you." Sokka said studying the statue. I punched him on the shoulder as hard as I could. He was wacked to the floor "Right, I got it, no bad mouthing fire benders."

"You can bad mouth bad people, fire benders aren't bad people, and they're just following bad commands." I said.

"There's no writing, how did you know his name?" Katara asked.

"I just did." Aang said, sounding just as puzzled as the rest of us felt.

"You couldn't get any weirder." Sokka complained. Suddenly we all heard a noise from behind us. We ducked behind a statue each. "Fire bender, nobody make a sound." Sokka whispered. He pulled out his boomerang so I grabbed my knife; I was upset because my bow was still in my den at the South Pole.

"You're making a sound!" Katara hissed. We all shushed her at the same time.

"That fire bender won't know what hit him." Sokka whispered.

"I'll hit you if you don't shut up!" I whispered angrily. Sokka jumped out and got ready to attack, he frowned. I frowned along with the others; we all peaked around the edge of our statues. I laughed and said "Awwww, it's so cute." It was a flying lemur.

"Lemur!" Aang said.

"Dinner." Sokka drooled.

"Idiots." I face palmed.

"Don't listen to Sokka; you're going to be my new pet." Aang said.

"Not if I get him first!" Sokka said. They both ran at the lemur. The lemur hissed and ran away; I saw them disappear down the hall. I lit another flame and started walking around the statues. I felt Katara's eyes on me the whole time, but her eyes were mostly on the flame I was holding. "You don't trust me do you?" I asked.

"The fire nation killed my mother. They haven't done anything to you so you wouldn't understand." She said.

"Actually I do." I said, referring to the scar covering my arm.

"Again, what happened to your arm?" She asked. I shook my head and kept looking at the statues. Suddenly the eyes of every single statue started to glow. "Aang." I said worriedly. We ran outside and tried to find Aang. I ran to where I heard a lot of noise. It was a box like place with tarpaulin over the top. The tarpaulin was blown of the top. Aang was in the middle, floating in the air, his eyes and tattoos were glowing.

"What happened?!" Katara asked.

"He found out fire benders killed Gyatso." Sokka said.

"It's his avatar spirit! This must have triggered it!" I said.

"I'm gonna try and calm him down." Katara said.

"Well do it before he blows us off the mountain!" Sokka yelled, we were holding on to the remains of a wall so that we weren't blown away by the force of the wind. Katara walked forward but was blown backwards multiple times. She finally got close and grabbed onto a stone for support "Aang, I know you're upset, and I know how hard it is to lose the people you love, I went through the same thing when I lost my mum, Monk Gyatso and the other air benders may be gone, but you have a new family, you have Sokka, Hotaru and I, we're your family now." Aang calmed down, he floated back down to the ground and stopped bending but his eyes and tattoos were still glowing. We walked over to him, Sokka said "We won't let anything happen to you." Katara held his hand.

"We promise." She said. Aang started to go floppy. I caught him and laughed quietly.

"I'm sorry." He mumbled.

"It's okay, it wasn't your fault." I said.

"But you guys were right, and if fire benders found this temple, which means that they found the other ones too." He said quietly.

"Whatever has happened, we can't lose hope." I smiled; I hugged him and said "It'll be okay, we'll kick the fire nations butt."

"I really am the last air bender." Aang said before passing out in my arms. We left Aang in the temple with Sokka while we went to go and pack everything we needed. Katara and I walked back up to the temple and got Aang. "Everything's packed, you ready to go?" I asked.

"How is Roku supposed to help me if I can't talk to him?" Aang asked.

"You don't talk to him, he will talk to you." I said.

"Yeah, you'll find a way." Katara reassured. Sokka was standing quietly in the corner. We heard a noise behind us, our heads whipped round, it was the lemur from earlier. It ran over to Sokka and dropped a load of fruit and different foods in front of him. Sokka dove to the floor and started guzzling it down.

"Looks like you made a new friend Sokka." Aang smiled.

"Can't talk, must eat." Sokka mumbled through a mouthful of food. The lemur ran up Aang and rested on his head. I stroked its ears.

"I love animals." I said. We walked down the mountain steps and to where Oppa and Sadie were waiting. I ran to her and hugger her neck, she licked the side of my face and covered me in spit, I rubbed the gooey spit off of my face and got onto Oppa with her. Aang said to the lemur "You, me and Oppa, we're all that's left of this place now, we gotta stick together. Katara, Sokka, Hotaru, say hello to the newest member of the family."

"What are you gonna name him?" Katara asked. The lemur ran to Sokka and took the food off of him before perching back on Aang and eating it. Aang laughed.

"How about Momo?" Aang asked.

"I think that's perfect." I said.

"Right." Katara and Sokka said. It was dark when we left the southern air temple, Aang kept his eyes on it until it was swallowed by the clouds around the mountains.


	4. Chapter 4

We had been travelling for weeks, Aang was heading for a certain place but we had been everywhere, all over the world! We were lost; we didn't know where we were, where we had been or where we were going. One day Sokka just asked "You don't know where you're going, do you?"

"Well, I know it's near water." Aang said. I looked around; we were in the middle of an ocean. Katara and I were sewing some clothes back together; I also had some new clean clothes now as well. The pain of the burn covering my arm was gone. "I guess we're close then." Sokka said sarcastically.

"Pass me the marbles." Aang said to Momo. He did a trick with them.

"Look at this Katara!" Aang chirped.

"That's great." She said still sewing.

"You didn't even look." Aang said, he stopped doing the trick. Katara looked at him.

"That's great." She said.

"I'm not even doing it anymore." Aang said.

"Stop bugging them airhead, you need to give girls space when they do their sewing." Sokka said. Katara and I both stopped what we were doing and looked at Sokka angrily.

"What does us being girls have anything to do with it?" I asked.

"Simple, girls are better at sewing trousers than guys, guys are better at hunting and fighting and stuff like that." Sokka said.

"I can pin you in less than ten seconds, I don't think that you count as a 'guy', you defiantly scream like a girl." I said.

"Whatever, it's just the natural order of things." Sokka shrugged.

"All done with your trousers! They're all done! Look what a great job I did!" Katara said angrily, she threw the trousers at him.

"Wait, I was just kidding, I can't wear these, Katara please!" He yelled, putting his hand through a hole in his trousers.

"Relax Sokka, where we're going you won't need any trousers!" Aang smiled. We landed on the beach of a small island "Sadie loves swimming." I said.

"We just made a pit stop yesterday; shouldn't we get a little more flying done until we camp out?" Sokka asked.

"He's right, at this rate we won't get to the North Pole until spring." Katara said.

"But Oppa's tired already," Aang said "Aren't you boy?" Oppa opened his mouth and made a fake yawn.

"Yeah, real convincing, but still-it's hard to argue with a ten ton magical monster." Sokka said. Sadie yapped at the water happily "And a razor-toothed dog." he added on the end.

"Look!" Aang yelled, he pointed out at the water. Out of the water hopped a giant coy fish. "That's why we're here, elephant coy." He got into his swim suit and hopped into the water.

"I'll come in, but I'm keeping my knife with me." I said. I got into my swim suit and hopped into the water, it was cold but fun at the same time. I whistled, Sadie ran past Sokka, knocking him over, and leapt into the water like the giant puppy dog she was. I was sitting at the edge of the beach, so that the water was only up to my chest. I watched Aang and cheered. I then saw a dark shadow in the water. We tried to call him back but he couldn't hear us, he was then flipped off of the fish. The spine of the monster came out of the water, it was HUGE! Aang screamed like a girl and ran across the surface of the water. I also got out of the water and went over to Aang. I laughed "That was stupid, but incredibly funny." The monster swam back into the lake. I slipped my trousers and top back on, then my jacket that hid the burn mark.

"What was that?" Katara asked.

"I don't know." Aang replied.

"Well let's not stick around to find out, time to hit the road." Sokka said. I was about to reply when suddenly people dropped from all the trees around us, I quickly pulled my knife and got into the correct stance. Sokka was grabbed, Katara's hood was pulled down and she was dragged away, Aang shirt was grabbed and he was dragged. Someone went towards me; I remembered all of the training lessons I had had from father and Zuko on close combat. I kicked underneath the figure in front of me and then jumped over it so that I wasn't circled. I put the knife away so that I had both my hands to fight with. The figures closed in on me, I was shuffling backwards when I felt water at my heel. I was about to walk into the water when I saw the monster we had seen before. I stood up and let myself be taken by the enemy. A blind fold was tied around my eyes and ropes around my torso; I was chucked to the ground with a startled grunt.

"Or we could stay a while." Sokka said.

"Not the time for jokes Sokka." I growled. We were dragged somewhere and then tied to what seemed like a big pillar. After a few minutes I heard a man's voice "You four have some explaining to do."

"And if you don't answer all of our questions then we're throwing you back into the water with the Unagi." Said a woman's voice.

"Show yourselves cowards!" Sokka yelled. I felt my blind fold being taken off. I blinked a few times because of the glare of the sunlight. When the white screen faded I saw many women, dressed in green robes and with face paint on.

"Who are you? Where are the men who ambushed us?" Sokka asked.

"Really Sokka, this again?" I said.

"There were no men, we ambushed you," The lady at the front of the group said "Now tell us, who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Wait a sec, there's no way a bunch of girls took us down." Sokka said.

"I'm thirteen; I took you down…twice." I said. The lady walked forward and grabbed the front of Sokka's shirt "A bunch of girls huh? The Unagi's going to eat well tonight." she said threatingly.

"No, don't hurt him, he didn't mean it!" Katara pleaded "My brother's just an idiot sometimes."

"It's my fault we came here; I wanted to ride the elephant coy. And so did he." I said, gesturing to Aang. He looked at me angrily "Hey, if I'm going down then I'm taking you with me." I said.

"How do we know you're not fire nation spies? Kyoshi has stayed out of the war so far and we intend to keep it that way." A man in a blue robe said.

"This island is named after Kyoshi? I know Kyoshi!" Aang exclaimed. Kyoshi was the last Avatar born into the Earth Kingdom.

"How could you possibly know her?! Avatar Kyoshi was born here 400 years ago; she's been dead for centuries." The man said.

"Well, he's the avatar and he's 112 years old, so it's not impossible." I said.

"That's impossible! The last avatar was an air bender that disappeared 100 years ago!" the woman said.

"That's me!" Aang said.

"Take the imposter to the Unagi!" the man commanded. The women opened up their fans and prepared to attack and take us.

"Just do some air bending." I said, sounding quite bored. Aang nodded and jumped up high, almost higher than the actual pillar we were tied to. Everyone started in awe, I rolled my eyes. I lifted my foot up and put my hand inside my boot. "What are you doing?" Sokka asked. I ignored him and pulled out the small knife I kept there. I cut the rope around my wrists and then did the same with Katara and Sokka.

"It's true, you are the avatar." The man said to Aang.

"It's true, check this out!" Aang said. He pulled out some marbles and did the trick he tried to show Katara earlier. The village cheered.

I slapped my forehead and said "Idiots."

That day I went around the island on Sadie with Aang, but there were loads of girls following him. At one point Aang said "Can you go any quicker?!" I grinned and kicked him off of Sadie and then stopped. All the girls swarmed around him, I almost fell off Sadie laughing. I rode over and pulled him back up before riding as fast as I could back to the village. Oppa was being treated specially and was having his fur brushed while eating. When we got back it was like breakfast for us, but we had desert. I sat down at the table.

"Alright! Desert for breakfast!" Aang exclaimed. I heard cheering outside the window. I walked over and closed it. "You have admirers." I laughed.

"These people sure know how to treat an avatar!" Aang said stuffing his face.

"Don't get so big headed." I said. Sokka was slouching in the corner "Come and eat this stuff, its amazing!" I said, trying to fit a whole doughnut in my mouth at once.

"I'm not hungry." He moaned. I froze.

"But you're always hungry." I said.

"He's just upset because a load of girls kicked his butt." Katara smiled.

"They snuck up on me!" he complained.

"Right…and then they kicked your butt." Katara said, I laughed and nodded in agreement.

"Sneak attacks don't count!" He yelled grumpily before storming out of the room.

"What's he so angry about? It's great here; we're getting the royal treatment." Aang said.

"Speaking of royalty, don't get too comfortable; brother probably already knows we're here." I said.

"I'm sure we'll be fine, besides, did you see how happy I'm making this town, and they're even repainting the statue of Kyoshi in my honour." Aang said.

"Well-it's nice seeing you excited about being the avatar, like Hotaru said, I hope it doesn't go to your head." Katara said.

"Come on, you two know me better than that, I'm just a simple monk." Aang said. He stood up and walked to the window and reopened it, I heard more fan girl screams. He grinned down at the girls on the floor. Katara rolled her eyes.

After our meal I went out and started to gather supplies for the trip along with Katara, she was getting food and I was getting everything else. After a while Sokka came up to me, I saw the Kyoshi warriors behind him. He said "Let's fight, I'll show you girls who's boss."

"Ok." I shrugged. I put the clothes I had got on the floor and got into a defensive stance. Sokka ran at me, I grabbed his arm and twisted it around so his back was facing me. I kicked him to the floor and knelt on his back "We all done here?" I asked. He nodded, blushing from embarrassment. I picked up my stuff and went to leave. The Lady at the front of the group, the same from earlier, came over and said "You're only thirteen, yet you fight like a fully trained warrior, where do you come from?"

"I'm homeless; I lived with penguins in the South Pole." I answered.

"Ah, and, one more thing, he says that he's the best warrior in the village, is that true?" She asked.

"Yeah, but of the group of warriors, he is the oldest, the second oldest is 4 years old." I laughed. I whistled and watched as Sadie pushed her way past many villagers. I pulled myself up and wiped some sweat from my forehead, it was really hot outside.

The lady said "Why don't you take off your jacket?"

"Good idea." I said. I unzipped the front and shrugged it off before tying it around my waist.

"That scar? Is it from a fire bender?" The lady asked. I nodded but stayed silent before riding back to where we were staying.

After a while I decided to go down to the beach. When I got there I saw Aang and Katara hiding. "What is it?" I asked. Katara grabbed the bottom of my shirt and yanked me behind a rock. "Look." She said, he pointed down to the shore. I peaked over the edge of the rock and saw a fire nation ship; I looked along the edge and said "Yes, that is defiantly my brother's ship." The door of the ship opened and brother rode out on a rhino with a few other soldiers. I looked down at Aang; he was passed out "What happened to him?" I asked quietly.

"Unagi." Katara answered. I looked over the rock again and made a signal to Katara to say 'be quiet' she nodded, we waited as brother and his soldiers rode past us. When they were past us Katara laid Aang down on another rock. "Come on, wake up." I said. I let my hand hover over him. I said "I can feel the water in his system, you're a stronger bender than me, can you get it out?" I said.

"I'll try." She answered. She pulled some water out of his mouth. He coughed and woke up again.

"You two?" Aang said.

"Yeah?" Katara said.

"Don't ride the Unagi." He said.

"No, I'll leave that to idiots like you." I laughed.

We ran back to the village as fast as we could. When we got there I snuck past the soldiers into our temporary home and grabbed Aang's staff, I threw it out of the window and made sure he had it before jumping out myself.

"Looking for me?" Aang asked.

"Finally." Brother said, he kicked some fire at Aang, Aang swung his staff around in front of him which stopped the fire from touching him. Aang jumped into close range but his staff was knocked out of his hands. Aang hopped away again. I said loudly "Stop this Zuko; you'll hurt the villagers here!" Brother looked around at me and grinned.

"You'll be easy to beat, I remember our training sessions." Brother said.

"I don't want to fight, I want you to take this away from the village." I said.

"No, stay out of this sister." Zuko said. I froze and looked at the villagers around us. "Oh, I see, you're afraid that they'll find out."

"Find out what?" Suki, the leader of the Kyoshi warriors, asked.

"That she is princess Hotaru of the fire nation." Zuko said loudly so that everybody could hear.

"Well, my secret's out, but that means I can do this now." I said. I kicked fire at him but he managed to either block or dodge every blast. He then sent his own fire at me, which I also dodged, apart from the last one, which hit me square in the chest, I flew into a pillar of a house nearby. I roared in pain and fell to the floor. I saw Aang jump in with two metal fans, he sent a strong blast of air at brother and hit him into a house, a large cloud of dust and dirt appeared. Aang threw his glider in the air and jumped on, I ran as fast as I could through the village to where we were staying. I saw Katara enter the house we were staying in. Aang said "Look what I brought to this village." He gestured around, the village was destroyed and fire lit every other building.

"It's not your fault." Katara tried to comfort.

"Yes it is, these people got their town destroyed trying to protect me." Aang said.

"Then let's get out of here, Zuko will leave Kyoshi to follow us. I know it feels wrong to run but I think it's the only way." Katara said.

"And now the Kyoshi warriors know that I'm a princess of the godamn fire nation." I growled.

"I'll call Oppa." Aang said sadly. We got all of our stuff together quickly and got onto Oppa. I made sure we had enough food and then we left. We flew through the sky on Oppa; guilt ate away at me though.

"I know it's hard, but you did the right thing." Katara said.

"She's right, Zuko would have destroyed the whole place if we'd stayed." I said.

"They're going to be okay Aang." Katara said.

Suddenly Aang stood up and jumped off of Oppa and down to the water below. "What are you doing?!" Katara yelled. He dived into the water and came up a few seconds later, riding the Unagi. He made the Unagi spray water all over the village. The fires went out and the fire nation soldiers were soaked. He jumped off of the Unagi and was caught by Oppa. He climbed back onto Oppa's saddle next to us.  
>"I know, I know, that was stupid and dangerous." Aang said.<p>

"Yes…it was." Katara smiled.

"But it was also heroic and brave." I smiled. Katara nodded and hugged Aang, he grinned. I laughed; looks like Aang had a little crush.


	5. Chapter 5

Our next stop was the Earth Kingdom, the city of Omashu. "I always came here to visit my friend Bumi." Aang said excitedly. I looked at the city nervously. "What's wrong?" Aang asked me.

"People in there will probably know I'm the princess of the fire nation." I said. I made sure my scar was covered and my hood was up.

"Wow, we don't have cities like this in the South Pole." Katara said.

"They have buildings here that don't melt." Sokka said.

"Well let's go slow pokes! The real fun is inside the city!" Aang said impatiently.

"Wait, it could be dangerous if people find out that you're the avatar." Katara warned Aang.

"You need a disguise." Sokka suggested.

"What am I supposed to do? Grow a moustache?" Aang asked.

"Something along those lines." I smiled. I walked over to Oppa and got out his fur brush and got some of the fur out of it. I got some string and then made a sort of hat hair thing. I shoved it on his head and laughed at his face. I then got some more fur and put it under his nose and over his lip, making him a moustache. I said "There."

"It's so itchy." Aang complained.

"Well, it is either putting up with that or putting up with death, your choice." I said.

"Ugh, fine." He said.

"Great, now you look just like my grandfather." Sokka said.

"Well, technically Aang is 112 years old." Katara said. Aang grabbed his staff and used it as a walking stick, he hunched his back over as well. Momo hopped into the hair and hid. I stroked Sadie behind the ears and said to her "Take care of Oppa okay?" She barked in reply. I smiled and walked back to the rest of the group.

"Now let's get to skipping young whippersnappers. The big city awaits." Aang said in an old man voice. I clapped and laughed while Katara and Sokka just looked at each other like Aang was crazy.

We walked up the path to the city. While we were walking Aang said "You guys are gonna love Omashu, the people here are the friendliest in the world." In front of us at the gate we saw three earth bender guards and an old man with a cart of cabbages.

"Rotten cabbages! What kind of slum do you think this is?!" The guard yelled, crushing the old man's cabbages.

"Yeah, friendliest in the world." I repeated sarcastically. The guard then knocked the cart of cabbages of the side of the raised path

"MY CABBAGES!" The old man yelled.

"Just keep smiling." Aang said. We walked forward to the guards. The guard earth bended so that a big boulder was hovering over Aang.

"State your business." The guard said. Aang rushed forward and poked the man's chest.

"My business is my business young man and none of yours. I have the good mind to bend you over my knee and blister you backside!" Aang threatened in his old man voice.

"Settle down old timer, just tell me who you are." The guard said.

"Names Buzu…pattlebob zocapilus the…third, and these are my grandkids." Aang said.

"Hi, June pattlebob zocapilus, nice to meet you." Katara said.

"You seem like a responsible young lady, see that your grandpa stays out of trouble, enjoy Omashu." The guard said.

"We will." Katara chirped. We all went to go and walk through the gate of Omashu.

"Wait a minute!" The guard said, he grabbed Sokka's shoulder "You're a strong young boy, show some respect for the elderly and carry your grandfather's bag." I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding.

"Good idea!" Aang said. He took off his satchel and threw it to Sokka, hitting him on the head. We were allowed to carry on walking. When we got to the wall three heavy sets of doors opened. We walked inside and looked over a railing at the city of Omashu, it was amazing. There were small road like structures. "That's the Omashu delivery system." Aang informed us "Miles and miles of tubes and chutes. Earth bending brings the packages up and gravity brings them back down."

"Great, so they get their mail on time." Sokka said sarcastically. I punched his shoulder.

"They do get their mail on time, but my friend Bumi found a better use for these shoots." Aang smiled mischievously. We walked to the top of one of the mail chutes and grabbed an empty rock basket that carried mail; we hopped into the box and sat down. Aang and I were both grinning like idiots while Katara and Sokka looked like they were about to die. I joked to Aang "I swear if we die, I'm gonna kill you."

"Let's just do this here, and then we're off to the North Pole, air bender's honour." Aang said.

"This sounded fun at first, but now that I'm here I'm kind of having second thou-"Katara was cut off, Aang pushed off the kart and we slid down the chute very fast. I put my hands up in the air and yelled "Woohoo!" Katara and Sokka were terrified, that made Aang and I laugh even more. On our way down we saw a brick with sharp new hunting spears sticking out. There was a thin dip in the chute separating us, soon though the dip disappeared. We were in front; the spears were almost sticking into Sokka's back. Sokka ducked and Katara leaned forward a little to dodge the spears.

"I'm on it!" Aang yelled. He swung the basket around; we flew off of the chute, down a roof, past some soldiers and then through a railing, we knocked over another rock basket full of fruit, many other baskets then crashed into that one, we went across another roof and back onto a chute.

"Aang! Do something! Use your air bending, anything!" Katara yelled.

"Yeah! Good idea, that will make us go even faster!" Aang yelled, he made a wave of air propel us along even faster. I was dying of laughter at that point. We carried on down the chute and then we were about to stop but a basket appeared in front of us, we screamed, an earth bender got rid of the basket, we let out a breath, anther basket appeared, we screamed again, we went through the basket in front of us and were tossed out of our own. Aang used air bending to pull us back into the basket; we skimmed some roofs, knocking off tiles. We went through a window and smashed through a pot that was being painted; we went out of the house through another window "SORRY!" I yelled back to the man who _was _painting a pot. We then rode through many houses and eventually landed on some guys cabbage stall.

"MY CABBAGES! You kids are going to pay for this!" the man shouted. Aang and I were both still laughing. I gave him a high five and said "Now that was fun." Suddenly we were pulled up by some guards. The cabbage guy said "You are going to prison."

"Awwww man, not again." I groaned. We were brought to the castle in the middle of Omashu; we were talking to the king. One of the guards searched us for weapons, I ended up with a pile of swords and knives next to my feet, they didn't have the knife that was in my boot though, or the one strapped to my shirt under my jacket. The guard took off my jacket and took the rest of my knives, Damnit. The king studied my scar and then my face before going back looking at Aang.

"Your majesty, these juveniles were arrested for vandalism, travelling under false pretences and malicious destruction of cabbages." A guard said.

"Seriously, what is it with you guys and cabbages?" I asked.

"Silence." Another guard said, I rolled my eyes and nodded.

"Off with their heads! One for each head of cabbage!" the cabbage guy from earlier yelled.

"Silence, only the king can pass down judgment. What is your judgement sire?" the guard asked the king.

"Hmmmmm, throw them-"the king said, I gasped "A feast!"

"Huh?" I asked.

"Yeah, you can all have a feast!" the king said.

"Maybe you didn't understand before, so I'll say it again…huh?" I asked.

A table was laid out with lots of different food. I licked my lips and walked over to the table; I sat down and ate like I had never eaten before. Momo was hopping around the table and eating different foods. The king laughed crazily and said "The people in my city have gotten fat from too many feasts, I hope you like your chicken with no skin."

"Thanks, but I don't eat meat." Aang said.

"I'll have it!" I said, the king threw the meat at me fast. I caught it in mid air right before it hit my face. I shoved it into my mouth and gnawed on it.

"Fast reaction for a little girl." The king said.

"Looks can be deceptive." I shrugged. He laughed and nodded.

"Is it just me or is this guy's crown a little crooked?" Katara asked.

"Call it eccentric." I said.

The king walked over and sat on a chair on the opposite side of the table "So, tell me young bald one, where do you come from?" the king asked Aang.

"I'm from-um-kangaroo Island!" Aang said.

"Ahhhhh, Kangaroo Island, ay? I hear that place is really hoppy?" the king made that awful joke, he'd been doing that the whole time. Sokka started laughing hysterically.

"What-i-it was pretty funny." Sokka said.

The king stretched and yawned "All these good jokes are making me tired, I guess it's time to hit the hay." Suddenly the king pulled out a piece of meat and threw it at Aang. Aang caught it with air bending, people around the room gasped. I slapped my forehead and muttered bitterly under my breath "What happened to secret identities?"

"There is an air bender in our presence, and not just any air bender, but the avatar!" The king said "Now, what do you have to say for yourself Mr. pattlebob zocapilus?"

"Okay, you caught me, I'm the avatar, doing my own thing, keeping the world safe, everything checks out, no fire benders here." Aang said checking under the table cloth for fire benders "So, good work everybody!"

We started to walk out of the door together.

"Well, respect life…and uh-don't run with your spears." Aang said to the guards. We were almost out when the guards crossed their spears and wouldn't let us leave.

"You can't keep us here. Let us leave!" Katara said.

"lettuce leaf?" the king asked, eating a lettuce leaf.

"We're in serious trouble." Sokka whispered to us "This guy is nuts!"

"Tomorrow, the avatar will face three deadly challenges, but for now, the guards will show you to your chambers." The king stated.

"My liege, do you mean the good chambers or the bad chambers?" A man asked.

"The newly refurbished chamber." The king said.

"Wait, which one are we talking about?" the man asked.

"The one that used to be the bad chamber, until the recent refurbishing that is, of course, we've been calling it the new chamber, we really should number them….Take them to the newly refurbished chamber that was once bad!" The king commanded, eating another lettuce leave.

We were walked down the tunnels to a room; the earth benders opened a hole in the wall and pushed us in before closing it again. "This is a prison cell?" Katara asked. There were fancy lights on the wall and three cushy beds, and then there were strips of fabric stretching from the walls like massive multi-colour hammocks. "It's so nice." She said.

"Well it's been newly refurbished." Aang said.

"Nice or not, we're prisoners." Sokka said. I shrugged and looked around.

"I wonder what these challenges are gonna be?" Aang asked.

"We can't stick around to find out." Katara said.

"The air vents!" I said, there were small Momo-sized holes in the wall.

"You don't think that we could fit through there?" Sokka said.

"Momo can!" Aang said, pointing at Momo. Momo was lying on a bed licking an apple over and over again, his belly was puffed up from so much food.

"Momo, I need you to find Oppa and Sadie and then bust us outta here." Aang said. I grabbed a chair and put it under an air vent. Aang grabbed Momo and got onto the chair and tried to push him through the vent, but he was too fat. "Go on boy! Go get Oppa or Sadie!" Aang said still trying to push Momo through the hole.

"How are they meant to save us anyway?" Sokka asked, he was lying on a bed.

"Oppa's a ten ton bison and Sadie has razor sharp teeth, I think they'd figure something out." I said.

"Well, there's no point arguing about it now, get some rest Aang, looks like you'll need it for tomorrow." Katara said, climbing into a bed herself. I frowned; there were three beds and four of us. Sokka and Katara already had a bed and Aang should get one himself. I jumped up and grabbed onto the edge of the fabric with my fingers, I hauled myself up and led down. Katara chucked up a pillow for me "Thanks." I said. We all went to sleep to get some rest, it was actually quite comfy but every time I moved the fabric threatened to tip me off.

Later in the night I actually did fall off, but when I did I felt some hands drag me up and drag me out of the room. When I came into the light I saw that Katara and Sokka had also been grabbed, Aang was still in the room though. I would have used fire bending to fight but the most I could do was kick and punch some fire balls, I ran away before I started my training, and all my weapons were taken away from me, and these were fully trained earth benders. We were taken to a room where the king was waiting. I frowned and asked "What are you up to?"

"The avatar must now complete his challenges, you three will be the prize." The king said.

"But I'm hungry." I said. I looked at the king up and down; he was wearing a cool purple robe with gems and all that fancy stuff. "I like the clothes." I said. He grinned and chuckled. A few minutes past and then the king left the room to go somewhere else. Suddenly part of the wall opened up and we saw Aang and the king. A guard grabbed my wrist; I kicked at him and ducked away. "Just say please." I said.

"Uh-please?" a guard asked. I nodded and held my hand out.

"Those delightful rings are made of pure Jennamite, also known as creeping crystal." The king explained while a ring was slipped onto my finger, it tightened exactly to my shape. "It's a crystal that grows very fast." Katara, Sokka and I tried pulling off the rings but they wouldn't budge. "By nightfall your friends will be completely covered in it, it's a terrible fate really, I can stop it but only if you cooperate." I looked at the ring; it grew up the length of my finger.

"AH! It's already creeping!" Sokka said.

"I'll do what you want." Aang said. The king grinned evilly. We were all taken to a room where stalactites and stalagmites were everywhere. There was a roaring water fall in the middle of the room. A key was attached to a chain that hung in the middle of the waterfall; a ladder was inside the waterfall leading up to the key. The Jennamite had already eaten my whole hand and was reaching my elbow.

"It seems I've lost my lunch box key and I'm hungry," the king said.

"So am I but I don't get anything." I gave as a side comment.

"Ooooh, there it is, would you mind fetching it for me?" the king carried on, he pointed at the key in the waterfall. The king said to us "You can help him by speaking but you can't actually go down there." Aang hopped from stalagmite to stalagmite. He jumped into the water fall and then grabbed hold of the ladder, he tried to pull himself up the ladder, but he was spat out of the water fall. I frowned and said quietly "No, do the opposite of what you think."

"What was that?" the king asked.

"Well, he's used to facing things differently, like an air bender; he needs to open his mind to new possibilities." I said.

"You're exactly right, why don't you tell him?" The king asked.

"What's the point of a test if you don't learn anything?" I asked.

"Fair enough." The kind nodded. I looked at Sokka and Katara; they hadn't heard out conversation, they were too fixated on watching Aang. I looked down at my arm the crystal was now covering my whole arm. Aang dove into the water fall again but was thrown out once again.

"Yes, keep going in head first, I'm sure it'll work at some point!" The king yelled. Aang gasped and then broke the top off of a stalagmite and threw it through the water fall along with a wave of air. The air sliced the chain and the spike went through one of the rings, the chain was pinned to the wall above of the king and the key hung down "Enjoy your lunch." Aang said angrily "I want my friends back NOW!"

"No, not yet, I need help with another matter, it seems I've lost my pet Flopsie." The king said. We were walked to a room that looked like a savannah; there was a small bunny on a rock, I think that was Flopsie. Aang jumped down and called up to the king "Okay! Found him!"

"Bring him to me!" the king commanded "Daddy wants a kiss from Flopsie." He said in a baby voice. As Aang started to walk to Flopsie a giant goat gorilla jumped down behind him. Aang was running after Flopsie while being chased by the gorilla. I saw the king chuckle, I sighed; the giant goat gorilla was Flopsie. Aang chased the rabbit until it went into a hole in a tree trunk. "Wait a minute." Aang said. He looked back at the goat gorilla "Flopsie?" The goat gorilla stopped and wagged its tail in front of Aang, it picked him up and cradled him like a baby before licking him. "Flopsie!" Aang sung. He then scratched Flopsie behind the ears and laughed. The king whistled for Flopsie. Flopsie ran over and climbed up the side and belly flopped onto the floor before turning around and lying on his back. I walked over and took a non-crystallized hand and scratched Flopsie's belly. "Awwww, that's a good boy." The king said "Yes you are, yes you are, who has a soft belly? You do, you do!"

Aang asked us "Are you guys okay?"

"Apart from the crystals encasing my whole body…doin great!" Katara said. I looked around at Sokka, the crystals grew on one side, he fell over, and I laughed. Aang looked at me and said "Are you alright?"

"I'm hungry!" I said angrily.

"I'm ready for the next challenge." Aang said to the king. We were taken to another room that looked like an arena. "Awesome! A fight, I can't wait to watch this!" I said hopefully, the crystals suddenly grew another time, covering my face "GOD DAMNIT!" I yelled. I couldn't hear anything because of the crystals either. After a few minutes I felt the ground shaking, I guess Aang was fighting. I guess he was fighting someone powerful as well. The crystals were getting heavier and harder to carry. It was now just a matter of time.

After what seemed like forever I felt myself being pushed in a certain direction. When I stopped being pushed I felt the crystals fly off of my body. I stretched my arms and legs and said "Ahhhhh, thanks. What happened while I couldn't see anything?"

"I fought the king, I won, I guessed his name, by the way, this is my friend Bumi." Aang said.

"Jennamite is made of rock candy." Bumi said. My eyes grew wide as I dived to the floor and grabbed a piece of it. I started gnawing on it like an animal.

"So this old crazy king is your friend Bumi?" Katara asked.

"Who you calling old…okay, I am pretty old." Bumi said.

"Why did you do all of this instead of just telling Aang who you were?" Sokka asked.

"First of all, it's pretty fun messing with all of you, but, I do have a reason." Bumi turned to Aang and said "Aang, you have a difficult task ahead of you, the world has changed in the hundred years you've been gone, it's the duty of the avatar to restore balance to the world by defeating Fire Lord Ozai, you have much to learn, you must master the four elements and confront the Fire Lord and when you do I hope that you will think like a mad genius." Aang bowed to Bumi in an act of respect "And it looks like you're in good hands, even if you are travelling with a fire bender princess." I gasped and started to stutter something, but I didn't know what to say. Bumi laughed and patted my back "If Aang trusts you then so do I." Bumi said. I smiled and bowed.

"You have my word; I will take care of Aang and kill my father." I said.

"Good, Aang will need his friends to defeat the fire nation." Bumi said. Momo ran up and onto Aang's shoulder "And Momo too." Bumi added.

"Thank you for your wisdom, but before we leave, I have a challenge for you." Aang said. He looked over at me and winked, I nodded and smiled. I chucked the piece of Jennamite I was eating to Momo. Aang and I both took Bumi outside. We all hopped into a basket and rode the chutes like we did before…we destroyed the newly rebuilt cabbage stand…I never liked cabbages anyway.


	6. Chapter 6

We were in the middle of a forest and Sokka was out trying to find food. I was still trying to get a hand on basic water bending. Sokka walked back.

"What's for dinner?" Aang asked hopefully.

"We got a few options, first, round nuts and some kind of oval shaped nuts and some rock shaped nuts…they might just be rocks….dig in!" Sokka said

"What else you got?" Katara asked.

"These nice looking berries." Sokka said, he brought out some blue berries and started to eat them. I wacked them out of his hands and back into the forest. "HEY! What gives?!" He asked angrily.

"Idiot, those were poisonous nightshade berries, you'd be dead in a few hours if you had some of them." I said.

"Oh." Sokka said.

Momo grabbed one of the rock shaped nuts and wacked it onto a rock, it echoed around the forest abnormally. "What was that?!" Sokka asked. Momo frowned and then dropped the nut or rock or whatever it was onto the floor and made another massive echo.

"It's coming from over there." Aang pointed to the right. We ran in the direction that Aang pointed in apart from Sokka.

"Shouldn't we run away from huge booms, not towards them?" Sokka asked. We got to where the loud noises were coming from. We looked over the edge of a tree trunk. There was a kid earth bending! I smiled, he was strong. "An earth bender." Katara said.

"No, a monkey." I said sarcastically.

"Let's go meet him." Aang said.

"He looks dangerous so we better approach cautiously." Sokka said. I nodded in agreement.

"Hello there!" Katara had gotten out of our hiding place "I'm Katara, what's your name?!" The guy stopped earth bending and looked around, he gasped and ran away, he pulled boulders down behind him, blocking us off. "NICE TO MEET YOU!" Aang yelled to him.

"I just wanted to say hi."Katara shrugged.

"Hey, that guy's gotta be running somewhere, maybe we're near a village? And I bet that village has a market." Aang said.

"And that means no nuts for dinner!" Katara exclaimed.

"Hey, I worked hard to get those nuts." Sokka complained. Katara and Aang started to run in the direction of the boy. I put my fingers in my mouth and let loose three shrill whistles. Soon after Sadie ran in and again knocked over Sokka, which seemed to be a tradition now. I unwrapped the rope and got onto Sadie. I pulled Sokka up and rode after Aang and Katara, as we rode past them we pulled them onto Sadie.

We soon got to a very small earth kingdom village that was filled with people, I couldn't tell what was wrong but very few of them smiled or showed any happy emotion. We walked through the streets; Aang traded some nuts for a hat. "So stylish." I said. He laughed and nodded. Katara tapped my shoulder and said "I just saw the boy from earlier."

"What are you waiting for then, let's go say hi." I said.

Katara walked through the door of the store and said "Hey, you're that kid, why did you run away before?"

"Uh, you must have me confused with some other kid." He said.

"No she doesn't, we saw you earth bending." Aang said walking through the door with Sokka. The old woman behind the counter and the boy gasped and closed the windows to the building and locked the door.

"They saw you doing what?!" the old woman asked.

"They're crazy mum, I mean, look at how they're dressed." The boy said pointing to Aang in his hat and us in our water tribe clothes…would he prefer me wearing my fire bender uniform?

"Rude." I said with my arms folded.

"You know how dangerous that is. You know what would happen if they caught you earth bending." The boy's mother said.

"Open up!" I heard someone banging on the door. Sokka ran over to the window and looked through the blinds. I pulled out my knife and got ready to attack or defend.

"Fire nation, act natural." Sokka hissed "And put away the knife!" he said to me. The boy's mother opened the door. The soldier walked in and looked at us. I was sitting against the wall eating an apple, the boy and Sokka were examining an apple, Aang was leaning against a wooden barrel and Katara was eating some berries. Suddenly Aang's arm fell through the lid of the barrel and was soaked with water.

"What do you want? I've already paid you this week." The boy's mother said.

"The tax just doubled, we wouldn't want an accident would we?" the soldier said, he made a ball of fire in his hand. The others took a step back "Fire, sometimes so hard to control." The soldier said. The mother got out a box and opened it, it was a box that was used to keep family funds in, all of this families money was in that box. I took a peek inside, there was hardly anything? She took out at least half of the money and gave it to the fire nation soldier. The soldier took out some of the money and dropped it on the floor "You can keep the copper ones." He said smugly. I picked up all of the money and handed it back to the mother. I said "I swear, not all fire bender are this bad. You have to believe me when I say that."

"What a nice guy." Sokka said. He turned to the mother and asked "How long has the fire nation been here?"

"Five years, Fire Lord Ozai uses our towns coal mines to fuel his ships." The mother answered.

"They're thugs, they steal from us and everyone here is too much of a coward to do anything about it."The boy said.

"They're the cowards; they abuse the elemental power the spirits gave them. They squander it, they don't deserve it." I growled very angrily. Aang put his hand on my shoulder.

"Calm down." He said.

"I'm sorry." I replied quietly. He smiled and nodded.

"Quiet Haru, don't talk like that." His mother said.

"What? Don't talk the truth?" I asked.

"Yeah, Haru's an earth bender, he can help." Katara said.

"Earth bending is forbidden, it has caused nothing but misery for this village, and he must never use his ability." Haru's mother said.

"How can you say that? Haru has a gift, asking him not to earth bend is like asking me not to water bend. It's a part of who we are." Katara pleaded.

"She's right, it is incredibly hard to keep something like that pent up, it comes out at unimaginable times." I said.

"You don't understand." His mother said.

"I understand that Haru can help you fight back, what can the fire nation do to you that they haven't done already." Katara asked.

"They could take Haru away, like they did to his father." Haru's mother said. Haru looked at the ground, like he was both upset and angry but didn't know which way to go.

We were stuck on places to stay so we asked Haru, he led us to a barn just outside of the village, and it was big enough to house us, Oppa and Sadie. "Mother says that you can stay here tonight, but you should leave in the morning."

"Thanks. I'll make sure Oppa doesn't eat _all _of your hay." Aang said, Oppa was already chewing on a load of hay. Katara and Haru were outside but I was setting up our sleeping bags with Aang and Sokka.

"I don't get it, what's so good about a dad?" I asked.

"What? Dad's teach and protect you; they share a laugh with you and joke around when you're feeling upset." Sokka said.

"You need to tell us about you, the real you, your family and that scar." Aang said. I nodded and sat down on a sleeping bag. I took a deep breath in and started talking.

"I always hated my father, my mother and Zuko were the only reason that I stayed at home, my father was mean and cruel. He saw that I could fight well; I always had, so he tried to make me a monster, he tried to teach me fire bending, but I refused. Fire bending is about strength, fire bending is the element of power, father fire bends with anger. I don't exactly want to talk about my mother."

"You said you stayed for Zuko…that jerk that tried to kill me…twice?" Aang asked.

"Zuko is my brother and I love him like a brother. Trust me, he has an iron-will defiance and inflexible determination, he's clever but very hot-headed, he also almost never thinks things through, but the thing that always got me was how proud he is, he would never give himself up. He is also very kind. Did you know, once, when we were playing on a beach he saw a crab and a bird. He saved the crab and then realised the bird would die without its food; he tried to save them both but almost drowned in the process."

"That sound like you." Sokka said. I rolled my eyes.

"What about your sister?" Aang asked.

"I hate her, she shouldn't exist, she is mean, and she burns flowers for fun. I'm trying to find a nice way to put it…she's an evil, crazy, cruel perfectionist. I am not joking, she doesn't settle for anything less than perfect, she thinks power and domination make people strong. She is cunning and perceptive and manipulative and-oh-did I mention evil? She's father's favourite and would hurt Zuko and I if we did anything nice, Zuko and I were both favoured by mother and Azula thinks that mother thought she was a monster, I don't like my sister, she won't give up until she has victory." When I finished talking about Azula I was on the verge of tears.

"What about the burn?" Sokka asked. I took off my jacket and held my arm forward. I lit a flame on the end of two fingers and showed them my arm.

"Look closely at it." I said. My arm was a mixture of pink and red down to my wrist, where the ends licked my hand like flames. On my arm were words, they were burnt into my skin permanently; they were dotted around my arm and in random places. "What do they say?" I asked. Aang ran his fingers over each word and read them aloud.

"Weakness, stupidity, loneliness, sorrow, and then the last one says… monster." Aang said. I was crying hard now.

"My father found me getting my stuff ready to leave about a week after he banished my brother. He pinned me down and burnt my arm, in his words it was a 'going away present'. He dragged me to my sister's room and told my sister to write down what she thought I was, I thought she was going to write it down on paper. She grabbed a poker from the fire and wrote on my arm. And that is how I got this scar." I explained through the tears.

"Wow, I am so sorry, I didn't know, until just then I have been thinking you were a spy or something." Sokka said.

"I know, you pretend to go to sleep at night, but I feel you watching me." I said. I laughed and wiped away the tears.

"Do you still have power as a fire nation princess?" Aang asked.

"Yes, but father thinks I'm dead, I'd rather keep it that way, he'd try to bring me back home again, I don't want that to happen, in other words, fire benders everywhere would bow to me but I don't want them to." I said.

I put my jacket back on and finished getting everything out, I also lit a small fire of paper and hay in the middle of everything. I sat down and handed out some food I had bought in the town. Katara walked in soon after and was smiling like an idiot "What did you do with Haru?" I asked.

"It was so amazing! Down at the mine there was an old man being crushed by rocks, we didn't have time to go and get anyone so Haru used earth bending and freed the old man!" Katara said "He is a really good earth bender."

"Wow, that's amazing." I said. I grabbed an orange out of my bag and chucked it to her.

"Thanks." She said biting into it. We spent a while talking and then we went to sleep. I made sure Sadie, Oppa and Momo were comfy, happy and if they'd had enough food. When they were happy I grabbed a blanket and lent against Sadie where I relaxed and got ready to go asleep. Katara was on a blanket and had a thick cover while Sokka had made a bed of hay. Aang was sleeping on top of Oppa's head with Momo. "It was amazing how he helped that old man." Katara said.

"You must have really inspired him." Aang said.

"I guess so." Katara said happily.

"Everyone should get some sleep, we're leaving at dawn." Sokka said.

"Dawn?! Can't we sleep in for once?" Katara asked.

"Absolutely not, this village is crawling with fire nation troops, if they discover Aang's here, we'll be eating fire for breakfast." Sokka said. I opened my mouth to say something "NO! That is not a meal option Hotaru!" he said, I frowned and nodded "Good night." He said. I brought the fire that was lit into my hands and extinguished it. "Night." I said.

"Besides, I'd rather eat fire than nuts." Katara said. Katara, Aang and I all laughed before going to sleep ourselves. I buried my head into Sadie's fur, she was like a big fluffy pillow.

When we woke up in the morning we got ready. Katara brought a jug outside while I grabbed our water bottles. "Ready?" she asked. I nodded and smiled. Together we water bended water out of a pump. While we were doing that she said "I still can't believe that someone other than the avatar can bend more than one element."

"Yeah, me too." I laughed. We filled the bucket and then started to fill the bottles for our journey. I looked around, the sun had just risen and the sky was still orange. I frowned, I saw Haru's mother looking out at the sea. She turned around and showed her face, tears were streaming down. No, no, it can't be, had Haru been taken, he was earth bending, and his mother's face, but he was a good person, they couldn't just take him away. Katara gasped and dropped the jug she was holding, it shattered into many pieces on the ground. Haru's mother explained what had happened. We ran back to the shed. "They took him!" I said to Aang and Sokka.

"They took Haru away!" Katara said.

"What?!" Aang said.

"The old man turned him into the fire nation, it's my entire fault, I forced him into earth bending!" Katara said quickly.

"Slow down Katara, when did this happen." Sokka asked, he walked over to her and comforted her by holding her shoulders.

"Haru's mother said they came for him at midnight." Katara said.

"Then it's too late to track him, they're probably long gone." Sokka said regretfully.

"We don't need to track him; the fire nation is going to take me right to Haru." Katara said.

"And why would they do that?" I asked.

"Because they're going to arrest me for earth bending." Katara answered, I'm guessing she had a plan. When Katara explained her plan we all agreed and started getting ready. Sokka and Katara pushed a boulder onto an air vent. Sokka said "I thought you were crazy at first Katara, but this might work. There are ventilation shafts throughout these mines, all Aang has to do is send an air current through from that vent to this one right here. The boulder levitates and TADAA, fake earth bending."

"Aang, did you get all that?" Katara asked. Aang was blowing air at a butterfly.

"Sure, sure, I got it." Aang said.

"Do you remember your queue?" Sokka asked.

"Yeah yeah, just relax; you're taking all the fun out of this." Aang said.

"By 'this' do you mean intentionally being captured by an army of ruthless fire benders?" Sokka asked.

"Exactly, that's fun stuff." Aang said.

"They're here!" I said, I pointed at some fire benders walking down the road. I ran into the shed, my job was to keep the animals quiet. When I walked in I saw Oppa and Sadie but not Momo? I frowned, oh well, Momo wouldn't cause any problems. After a few minutes I heard a knock at the barn door. I opened it and asked "Did the plan go well?"

"Yeah, Katara has twelve hours to find Haru; we need to follow her the whole time." Sokka said. I nodded and grabbed two hats. I chucked one to him and put one on myself. We followed Katara and the fire benders to the docks. She was now wearing what looked like a sack. She was put onto a boat. Aang got Oppa; Sadie was with our things in the shed. We followed the boat Katara was on the whole time, hidden by a layer of clouds. After a while we saw a big contraption in the middle of the water. "A prison?" I asked.

"I think so." Sokka said. Aang looked really worried.

"She'll be fine Aang; Katara knows what she's doing." Sokka said. We flew back to the shed after we had seen where Katara was heading to.

When night came we left silently for the rig that we saw. When we got there I saw that it was made completely of metal, earth benders shouldn't be treated this way. I waited outside with Sokka, on guard, while Aang ran inside and tried to find Katara. A few moments passed before Katara and Aang came back out. "Your twelve hours are up." Sokka said.

"Where's Haru? We need to go now, there's loads of security around here." I said. Aang came through the bars and hopped down onto Oppa.

"I can't." Katara said.

"We don't have much time, Hotaru is right, there are guards everywhere, get on." Sokka pleaded.

"Katara, what's wrong?" Aang asked.

"I'm not leaving." Katara said. I frowned and shared a worried sideways glance with Sokka and Aang. "I am not giving up on these people." Katara said. We all got off of Oppa and tried to reason with Katara.

"What do you mean you're not leaving?!" Sokka asked, we were all whispering.

"We can't abandon these people!" Katara said "There has to be a way to help them."

"Maybe she's right, what do ya say Sokka?" Aang said.

"I say you're both crazy!" Sokka said. We all ducked as a search light came our way, we waited until it passed before speaking again. "Last chance, we need to leave NOW!" Sokka said,

"NO." Katara said firmly.

"Ugh, I hate when you get like this, come one, we better hide." Sokka said. Aang whispered something to Oppa before we all ran off in one direction. We were brought to a load of storage crates, we hid between a group of crates that his us well from search lights and fire benders. "We don't have much time, what are we gonna do?!" Sokka asked.

"I wish I knew how to make a hurricane." Aang said "Hey, you still have power as royalty, why don't you command them to let the prisoners out?" he asked me.

"No, I can't, either they'd refuse and then my father would make me come home me _or _they'd let them go and my father would kill me." I said.

"Hey, I'm just tossing ideas around." Aang said.

"I tried talking the earth benders into fighting back but it didn't work." Katara said "If there was just a way to help them help themselves."

"For that they'd need some earth or some kind of rock, something they can bend." Sokka said.

"But this entire place is made of metal." Katara said.

"No its not." Aang said. I frowned and looked where he was looking, there were giant funnels billowing smoke. "Look at the smoke, I bet they're burning coal, in other words, earth." I smiled and nodded. We came up with our plan. I was with Sokka and Katara.

"It's almost dawn, are you sure this is going to work?" Katara said.

"It should, these vents reminded me of our little trick back at the village." Sokka said. We were in front of a massive vent that connected to others all over the rig. "We're gonna do the same thing but on a much bigger scale. There is a huge pile of coal at the base of the rig and the whole system is ventilated, Aang has closed off all of the vents except one, when he does his air bending the coal only has one place to go, right back here." Sokka explained.

"There's the intruders!" I heard someone yell. I looked up from the vent, there were guards surrounding us.

"STAY BACK! I'm warning you!" Sokka yelled with his boomerang out. I pulled out my knife in defence.

"Katara, stop this! You can't win this fight!" An old man said.

"Listen to him well children; you are one mistake away from dyeing where you stand." A man dressed in fire nation armour said, I guessed he was the warden. The soldiers with spears around us closed in. I heard rumbling. I looked at the vent; I saw air burst out and a few pieces of rock. Suddenly a coal fountain shot into the air. Aang jumped out and landed on the pile, he was covered in dirt. He coughed all the dirt off though. Katara ran up the pile to the top.

"HERE IS YOUR CHANCE EARTH BENDERS! Take it!" She held up a piece of coal "Your fate is in your own hands!" All of the earth benders walked backwards, like they were afraid. The warden laughed hysterically.

"HAH! Foolish girl, you thought a few inspirational words and some coal would change these people." The warden asked "Look at these blank, hopeless people their spirits were broken a long time ago…but you still believe in them, how sweet, they're a waste of our energy little girl, you've failed." Katara slumped down. The warden turned away. Haru walked up silently and threw a rock at the warden's head. The warden blasted fire in his direction. I bit my lip, if this warden saw me fire bend it would be a direct message to my father, but, I didn't have to step in. A giant wall of rock blocked the fire heading at Haru. I looked around, it was the old man that spoke earlier, I looked into his eyes, they were the same as Haru's, the old man must be his father. The fire benders lined up "SHOW NO MERCY!" The warden barked. A giant fight broke out between everyone. I grinned and took down many fire benders with my knives and swords. Soon Haru and his father made a boulder out of compressed coal and made a hole in the wall surrounding all the benders. The benders ran through to the ship. The earth benders managed to get the warden and the soldiers into the water. I blew a raspberry at them before running to the ship with everyone else.

Sokka, Aang and I rode on Oppa while he was swimming while everyone else rode on the fire nation ships that I managed to jump start. Haru and his father thanked Katara. We got back to the town where we gathered our stuff and left straight away, Katara had realised that she didn't have her mother's necklace, she was devastated.


	7. Chapter 7

We were riding over a beautiful meadow, it was so peaceful and the clouds were as white and as puffy as ever. "Those clouds look so soft, don't they? Like you could just jump down and land in a big soft cottony heap." Katara day dreamt.

"Maybe you should give it a try?" Sokka said.

"Ha-ha, you're hilarious." Katara said sarcastically.

"I'LL TRY IT!" Aang said. He stood up and jumped off of Oppa with his staff. I leant over the edge and watched as he fell through the blanket of clouds. He didn't come back up. We turned around and saw him on his glider. His clothes were dripping "Turns out clouds are made of water." He shrugged. He used air bending to blow all of the water off of him, he managed to keep everyone dry except for me and Momo. I rolled my eyes and used water bending to pull the water out of my clothes and Momo's fur.

"What is that?" Katara said, she was looking to the horizon. I narrowed my eyes and saw that the beautiful meadow ended and there was a dark creepy forest.

"It's like a scar." Sokka said. We landed in the middle of the forest but it was horrible. The grass was gone and the mud was gray and the trees were black with no leaves, they looked like they had been cut and then burnt. "Listen, it's so quiet." Sokka said "There's no life anywhere."

"Aang? Are you okay?" Katara asked Aang. Sokka was looking at prints on the ground.

"Fire nation!" Sokka exclaimed angrily "Those evil savages make me sick! They have no respect for-"

"Shhhh." Katara said.

"What, I'm not allowed to be angry?" Sokka asked. Katara pointed at Aang. He was leaning over something. He collapsed to the floor and sighed sadly.

"Why would anyone do this?" Aang asked sadly "How could I let this happen?"

"Aang, you didn't let this happen, it has nothing to do with you." I tried to comfort.

"Yes it does." Aang said "It is the avatar's job to protect nature, but I don't know how to do my job."

"It's not that, it's that people don't know how to help." I said.

"Yeah, that's why we're going to the North Pole, to find you a teacher." Katara said.

"Yeah, a water bending teacher, but there's nobody who can teach my how to be the avatar. Monk Gyatso said that Roku would help me." Aang said.

"The avatar before you? He died over a hundred year ago, how are you supposed to talk to him?" Sokka asked.

"I don't know." Aang said quietly.

Katara, Sokka and I looked for any sign of life. Finally Katara found something "Hey Aang, are you ready to be cheered up?" She asked.

"No." he said glumly. She lobbed whatever she had found hard at his head.

"OW!" he exclaimed "How is that cheering me up?" he rubbed the side of his head. I looked on the floor at what she had thrown, it was an acorn.

"Cheered me up." Sokka laughed. I threw the acorn I was holding at him; it hit the side of his head. "Ow." he said, a tear appeared in the corner of his eye "Yeah, I probably deserved that." He said.

"These acorns are everywhere." Katara said. She bent down next to Aang and showed him the acorns she had in her hand "That means the forest will grow back. Every one of these will be a tall oak tree some day and all the birds and animals that lived here will come back." She put an acorn in Aang's hand and smiled hopefully.

"Thanks Katara." Aang said, he was smiling now.

"Good, you've been cheered up, let's keep moving." I said. I heard a noise somewhere behind me; I whirled around and saw an old man.

"Hey! Who are you?" Sokka demanded.

"When I saw the flying bison I thought it was impossible but those markings. Are you the avatar child?" The old man asked Aang. Aang looked at us for guidance, both Katara and I nodded, he smiled and turned back to the old man and nodded happily "My village desperately needs your help." The old man pleaded.

"Well, we're here to help." I smiled. He thanked us and brought us to his village. When we got there we looked around. It was a very small village enclosed by a small stone wall, some of the buildings were destroyed, some of them were being rebuilt and a few of them were still standing. We were taken to a big building at the front of the building, when we walked in we saw many people all together.

"This young person is the avatar." The old man said to them all.

"So the rumours of your return are true?" A younger man said, he walked over and bowed to Aang "It is the greatest honour in a lifetime to be in your presence."

"Nice to meet you to." Aang said "So, is there something me and my friends can help you with?"

"I'm not sure." The man said sadly.

"Our village is in crisis, he's our only hope." The old man cowered "For the last few days at sunset a spirit monster comes and attacks our village, he is Hei Bai the black and white spirit."

"Why is it attacking?" I asked.

"We do not know but each of the last three nights he has abducted one of our own, we are especially fearful because the winter solstice draws near." The younger man said, looking out at the sun, which was dangerously low to the horizon.

"What happens then?" Katara asked.

"As a solstice approaches, the natural and spirit world with closer and closer until the line between them is blurred completely." The old man explained.

"Hei Bai is already causing devastation and destruction, once the solstice draws near there is no telling what will happen." The younger man said worriedly.

"SO, what do you want me to do exactly?" Aang asked.

"Who better to solve a crisis between our world and the spirit world than the avatar himself? You are the great bridge between man and spirits." the old man asked.

"Riiiight-uh-that's me." Aang said.

"Hey, great bridge guy, can I talk to you over her for a second." Katara asked. Aang nodded, they went over into the corner. I sat in another corner of the room and sat down. I crossed my legs and put my fists together in front of me. I took deep breaths in and deep breaths out.

"What is she doing?" someone asked Sokka.

"Meditating, she does it like every day for at least three hours." Sokka said. I tuned them out and cleared my mind, it's like falling asleep. I was awoken from my meditation by a loud roar. I stood up and ran to the window with Katara and Sokka. I saw Hei Bai outside, it was a massive monster with many legs and it was roaring some light into the air.

"My name is Aang! I'm the avatar and I would like to help, hey! Wait up!" Aang yelled. The monster started destroying more houses.

"The avatar's methods are unusual." Someone said.

"Maybe we should go help him?" Sokka asked.

"No, only the avatar stands a chance against the Hei Bai." The old man said.

"Aang will figure out the right thing to do Sokka." Katara said calmly. When I turned back I saw Aang get wacked from a roof.

"That's it, he needs help right now!" Sokka said angrily. I grabbed a water bottle and tied it around my waist so that I could bend that water if I needed to. I ran out straight away with Sokka.

"Wait!" Katara said. We ran out and went to the spirit. I knew a lot about spirits from talking and watching them. I did something weird that I wasn't aware of. I water bended the water in the bottle around the spirit in spirals. I sent my energy through the water spirals. A golden light went through the water and started at the bottom of the spirit engulfing it. I tried to send the light further up but the spirit roared and knocked be back into a house. I pulled myself up and said "Damnit." I looked at what was happening. Hei Bai was running off with someone in his hand, I think it was Sokka. Aang was flying after the spirit with his glider, there was no chance of me catching up. I walked over to Katara and tried to lift my arm, I roared in pain.

"What's wrong?" She asked frantically.

"I think it's broken." I said. I was then taken away by some villagers. It was my right arm, my non-burnt arm. They put some wood against my arm and taped it to my side. I ran back to Katara and asked "Are you okay?"

"Sokka." She whimpered. I smiled and put my non-broken arm around her neck and hugged her.

"It'll be alright." I said. We waited at the gate for ages, it was almost pitch black outside. The old man walked over and said "I'm sure that they'll be back soon."

"Yeah." Katara said.

"You two should get some rest." The old man said. He put one blanket around Katara and I. Katara was still holding on to Sokka's boomerang.

"Aang's going to be okay." Katara comforted herself.

"Your brother is in good hands, I would be shocked if the avatar turned up without him." The old man said. I looked in the direction of the woods again, nothing. "The sun is rising, perhaps he will return soon." The old man said. I nodded hopefully and looked in the direction of the forest, nothing. Oppa and Sadie even came to comfort us throughout the day. Katara asked "That thing with the water, what did you do?"

"I don't know, it came naturally. I'll try to explain it as best as I can…fire benders use chi to fight, I sent my entire chi through the water and tried to calm the spirit using it, but, the spirit rejected it and got even angrier." I said. Oppa kept roaring, I rubbed his nose and said "Aang will be back soon. The probably even found you some moon peaches as a treat." We led Oppa back into the village with Sadie. We got onto Oppa and flew around the destroyed forest to look for them, all to no avail so we flew back. We got back and waited even longer. When the sky went orange I saw Aang, he was riding his glider. We ran over to him and hugged him "YOU'RE BACK!" we yelled in unison.

"Where's Sokka?" Katara asked when we didn't see him.

"I'm not sure." Aang said. The sun finally went down. While we waited in the building like before Aang was outside. The monster suddenly appeared and roared it's spirit light onto Aang. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! RUN!" Katara yelled. The monster was about to attack the building we were in but Aang ran underneath the monster and out his hand on the monster's forehead. The monster gave a small roar, Aang floated back down to the ground. "You're the spirit of this forest." Aang said "Now I understand, you are upset and angry because your forest was burnt down. When I saw that the forest was burned I was sad as well, but my friends gave me hope-"

"And a headache." I laughed.

"Anyway, they gave me hope that the forest would grow back." Aang said. He held up the acorn that Katara had given to him; he put it down in front of the monster and smiled. The monster picked up the acorn and studied it. It transformed into a panda and walked out of the village gate. Bamboo shoots sprouted out of the ground and out of the plants walked many people, including Sokka. All the families welcomed back the people that had been taken by the spirit. We were thanked by the villagers, they were going to help prepare us for our journey.

"I'm so proud of you Aang, you figured out what to do all by yourself." Katara said.

"Actually, I had a little help, and there's something else you guys should know." Aang said solemnly.

"What is it?" Sokka asked.

"I need to talk to Roku and I think I found a way to contact his spirit." Aang said.

"That's great!" I exclaimed.

"Creepy…but great." Sokka said.

"There's a temple on a crescent shaped island and if I go there on the solstice then I'll be able to speak with him." Aang said.

"But the solstice is tomorrow?" Katara said.

"Yeah…and there's one more problem, the island is in the fire nation." Aang said. We all shared a look of terror. The fire nation…great.


	8. Chapter 8

We were getting ready to leave the village. Aang and I were both going to the fire nation but Katara and Sokka weren't, Aang refused to let them come with us but I was so stubborn that Aang just gave up. Aang and I were both yanking on Oppa's reigns, he wasn't budging.

"Come on you big oaf." I said pulling on the rope.

"Katara and Sokka aren't coming to the fire nation boy, if they got hurt; I'd never forgive myself…so get your big butt off the ground and let's go!" Aang said.

"I think his big butt is trying to tell ya something." I heard Sokka say.

"Please Aang, don't go, the world can't afford to lose you to the fire nation and neither can I." Katara said.

"But I have to talk to avatar Roku to find out what my vision means!" Aang said "I need to get to the fire temple before the sun sets on the solstice…that's today!" He jumped onto Oppa. I got Sadie onto Oppa's saddle and sat there myself. Oppa started to walk but Sokka and Katara got in front of him.

"We're not letting you go." Katara said.

"At least, not without us," Sokka grinned "We got your back." Oppa licked Sokka and covered him in thick gooey spit.

"It's a long journey to the crescent island, you'll have to fly fast to have any chance of making it there before sundown, good luck." The young man said. He passed up a package to Aang. Aang gave it to me and I tied it down with the rest of our stuff.

"Thank you for your-" Aang was cut off.

"GO!" he said. I quickly pulled Katara and Sokka up and smiled. We left straight away. We were going as fast as we could over an ocean.

"UH! Guys, we got trouble!" Katara yelled. I looked over the back and saw a fire nation ship, undoubtedly belonging to Zuko.

"Yeah, and its gaining fast!" Sokka squealed.

"It's Zuko, but, if he comes he was banished, he could get arrested?" I asked myself. I saw something raise up above the deck, it was like a giant sling shot. There was a boulder on it, and then someone set it on fire. "Why does everything have to be on fire?!" I asked. The fiery boulder was launched at us.

"FIREBALL!" Katara yelled a warning to Aang. I used a rope and quickly tied Sadie down so that she didn't fall off. I grabbed Momo and put him by Sadie.

"I'm on it!" Aang said. He pulled the rope to the side, Oppa just missed the fire ball. It was very smelly, I held my hand over my nose and the other hand gripped the rope around Sadie.

"We need to get out of Zuko's range." I pleaded.

"Before he shoots another hot stinker at us." Katara said.

"Can't you make Oppa go any faster?" Sokka asked.

"Yeah, but there's just one small problem." Aang said, he pointed down at the water. I looked down.

"A blockade." I groaned. Fire Nation ships made a firm line in the water, they would fire at us easily but they would also stop Zuko as well.

"We can turn around and fly north around the blockade? It's the only way." Aang suggested.

"There's no time." Katara said frantically.

"This is exactly why I didn't want you to come, it's too dangerous!" Aang said.

"That's exactly why we came." Katara retorted.

"Let's run this blockade!" Sokka said.

"Hell yeah!" I yelled.

"Oppa, yip yip!" Aang said. Oppa lifted his tail up and put it down; we went forward even faster than before. I looked closer at the lead ship in the blockade.

"General Zhao." I growled.

"Who's that?" Sokka asked.

"A power hungry fire nation narcissist." I said. I saw boulders being lit along every ship of the blockade. "Ready guys?" I asked, they nodded. I tightened the ropes around Sadie and made sure Momo was covered before grabbing onto Oppa's saddle and bracing for impact, I had to hold on with my non-broken arm.

There were at least fifty of those fire balls being launched at us at once. Aang managed to dodge out of the way of all of them. At one point two collided in front of us and coated Oppa in coal dust, some of his fur was on fire. "Help Oppa!" Aang said. I nodded and took a deep breath in. I fire bended the fire off of Oppa's fur and above us, I launched it at one of the ships but they blocked it easily, that one blast was enough to let them know there was a fire bender with the avatar.

"You alright buddy?" I asked Oppa, he let out a roar "That's my furry monster." I grinned. We headed above the clouds for more cover. More fire was hurled at us even when we above the clouds, we barely dodged them. Soon another two collided and covered Oppa, Oppa shook off the fire…and also Sokka! Sokka fell off of Oppa despite our efforts to grab him. He fell through the clouds.

"SOKKA!" We all yelled in unison. Aang tugged on the rope and pulled Oppa down from the clouds. We flew down fast to the water. We caught Sokka just in time. I put his hand on a rope and said "Hold onto this."

"Thanks." He nodded. A fish flew up from the water and hit Sokka in the face, he threw it behind him, and Momo jumped up and grabbed the fish. The next set of fire was launched at us; we dodged all of them easily. When we were almost past the line of ships when one last boulder was hurled. It was heading straight for us. Aang jumped forward and kicked a powerful blast of wind at the bolder; it shattered in front of us. Aang fell back onto Oppa and let out a breath as we went past the blockade. "We made it!" Aang exclaimed triumphantly.

"We got into the fire nation, great." Sokka sounded like he was going to pass out.

We flew fast to the fire nation island we needed to get to. I was drifting off to sleep when I heard Aang say happily "There it is!"

"Huh." I said groggily.

"This is the island that Roku's dragon took me." Aang said. When we landed Sadie jumped off and stretched. I jumped off and fell over, my legs were numb. I shook them awake and stood up again. I stretched from side to side and bent down to touch my toes without my knees bending, Sokka was trying to do the same but it wasn't working. I laughed and carried on doing what I was doing.

"You did it buddy, nice flying." Aang said, hugging Oppa. Oppa turned onto his back. Both Katara and I walked over and scratched his stomach.

"Awwww, you must be tired." Katara said.

"No, I'm good, refreshed and ready to fight some fire benders!" Sokka said, I laughed, he was such an idiot.

"I was talking to Oppa." Katara scoffed.

"Well I was-uh-talking to Momo." Sokka said.

"Nice save." I said sarcastically. We started walking up to the fire nation temple. Oppa and Sadie were waiting with each other hidden my some rock.

"I don't see any guards." Sokka said.

"The fire nation must have abandoned the temple after avatar Roku died." Katara said.

"It's almost sundown, we better hurry." Aang said. We ran through the front doors of the temple. We were tip toeing when we got inside. I looked around; I thought I had heard something. Suddenly a small furry thing jumped down from the ceiling. I fell over and grabbed what was on me.

"What is it?" Katara asked. I smiled and let the little animal lick my nose.

"It's a fire ferret." I said "Can we keep it?" I asked.

"Fine, but let's just go." Sokka said.

"I'm calling you Patch." I said to the little fire ferret. It was a boy and it had an unusual white patch shaped like a star on its back. It crawled up my arm and into my clothes and poked his head out from the top of my shirt. I laughed and tickled its head. We kept walking. Sokka suddenly said "I heard something." I looked around and gasped, there were people in the doorway to the hall we had just entered.

"We are the fire sages." One of them said "We are the guardians of the temple of the avatar.

"Great, I am the avatar." Aang said.

"We know." The man said, he punched a ball of fire at Aang. I jumped in the way and moved my non-broken arm in a circular motion, it extinguished the flames. Aang jumped in front of me and said "I'll hold them off, RUN!" Katara, Sokka and I ran through the hall round back. We ran through the corridor when Aang appeared from an adjoining corridor and said "Come on! Let's hurry!"

"Do you know where you're going?" Sokka asked as we ran after him.

"NOPE!" he said. He turned around a corner, we were about to go round after him but he ran back through "Wrong way!" he yelled. I looked back and saw a fire sage come around the corner.

"Come back!" the sage yelled. We followed Aang. We came to a dead end. The sage came up to us, we back away "I don't want to fight you, I am a friend." The sage said.

"Fire benders aren't our friends." Sokka growled.

"That one is." The sage pointed at me.

"We trust her." Aang said. Aang got ready to attack, the sage walked forward and…bowed?

"I know why you're here avatar." The sage said.

"You do?" Aang said.

"Yes, you wish to speak with Avatar Roku, I can take you to him." The sage offered.

"How?" Aang asked. The sage reach to the side and twisted a lantern to the side, there was now a hole there. He sent a small fire blast through it and a door opened in the wall revealing a set of stairs.

"This way." The sage said.

"Find them!" we heard someone nearby.  
>"Quickly, your time is running out." The sage said.<p>

"I'll go through first." I said. I walked through the door and looked around "Okay, we're good." I said. We walked down the tunnel and where the sage led us.

"Avatar Roku once called this his home; he formed these secret passages out of the magma." The sage explained.

"Did you know avatar Roku?" Aang asked.

"No, but my grandfather knew him." The sage asked "Many generations of fire sages guarded this temple long before me, we all have a strong spiritual connection to this place."

"Is that how you knew I was coming?" Aang asked.

"A few weeks ago an amazing thing occurred, the statue of avatar Roku, its eyes began to glow." The sage said.

"That's when we were at the air temple, avatar Roku's eyes were glowing there too." I said.

"At that moment we knew you had returned to the world." The sage said.

"If this is the avatar's temple then why did the sages attack me?" Aang asked.

"Things have changed, in the past sages were loyal only to the avatar, when Roku died the sages eagerly waited for the avatar to return but he never came." The sage said regretfully.

"They were waiting for me." Aang said, he stopped for a moment.

"Hey, don't feel bad, you're only 100 years late." Sokka said. I picked a stone up off of the floor and threw it at him, it hit the side of his head and fell to the floor.

"They lost hope that the avatar would ever return, when Fire Lord Sozin began the war my grandfather and the other sages were forced to follow him, I never wanted to serve the Fire Lord." The sage said. At the mention of Fire Lord I kicked the floor angrily.

"I am so sorry; we are here to put an end to Fire Lord Ozai." I said.

"When I learned that the avatar was coming I knew I would have to betray the other sages." The sage said.

"Thank you for helping me, for helping us." Aang said.

"Yes, when this war is over, I will make sure you are happy." I said.

"How will you do that?" the sage asked. I chewed my lip, should I tell him?

"My name is Hotaru; I am the Princess of the Fire Nation." I said. The sage gasped.

"Everyone including the Fire Lord thinks you're dead." The sage said.

"And I would like to keep it that way." I said. The sage nodded.

"Thank you Princess, we will follow these stairs to the sanctuary, once you're inside wait for the light to hit avatar Roku's statue, only then will you be able to speak with him." The sage said. We walked up so many spirals of stairs before we finally came to a large hall with wooden doors. "NO." the sage gasped.

"What's wrong?" Aang asked.

"The sanctuary doors, they're closed." The sage explained. I looked at the lock on the door, you needed to fire bend to open them, but there was more than one fire bender needed.

"Can't you just use fire bending?" Katara asked "Like how Aang opened that one at the air temple."

"No, only a fully realised avatar is powerful enough to open this door alone otherwise the sages must open the doors together with five simultaneous fire blasts." The fire sage said.

"Five fire blasts? I think I can help you out. Sokka got out some stuff from his bag and started making something in some small pouches. "This is a small trick I learnt from my father. I seal some lamp oil inside some animal skin casing, fire lights the oil-soaked twine and TADAA, fake fire bending."

"You've really outdone yourself this time Sokka." Katara stated.

"This might actually work." The sage said.

"What is your name?" I asked the fire sage.

"Shyu." He answered. Sokka put one of the pouches in each of the locks. "The sages will hear the explosions so as soon as the door opens you need to go in." Shyu said. Sokka ran behind a pillar with Katara.

"It's almost sunset, are you ready?" Katara asked.

"Defiantly." Aang said.

"You know what; you guys need to go in, Shyu and I will hold off the sages when they come." I said. The other nodded. Shyu and I then lit the twine on fire and ran behind two pillars. When the pouches exploded there was a huge cloud of soot and dust. Aang ran forward. He tried to pull the doors open but it didn't work. I frowned as my mind raced over solutions.

"Maybe we can open the doors, how good of a fire bender are you?" Shyu asked.

"I've never had any training. I'm a novice." I said.

"The plan, it didn't work." Shyu said. Aang started brutally attacking the door with air.

"WHY, WON'T, IT, OPEN?!" Aang yelled one word with each blast of air.

"Aang, stop." Katara and I said grabbing one of his arms each.

"There's nothing else we can do." Katara said.

"I'm sorry I put you through all of this for nothing." Aang said sadly.

"I don't get it." Sokka said, he rubbed his finger on the door, he took it off and showed us, his finger was covered in soot. "That blast is as strong as any fire bending I've seen."

"Sokka, you're a genius!" Katara said.

"Wait, how?" I asked "His plan didn't even work."

"Come on Hotaru, let her dream." Sokka said.

"You're right, Sokka's plan didn't work but it looks like it did." Katara said.

"Did the definition of genius change in the hundred years I was gone?" Aang asked. Katara told us her plan and by the end of it we were all grinning. We were hiding behind pillars while Shyu went and got the other sages.

"Look! The avatar has gotten inside, look at this soot!" Shyu said.

"He's inside?! Open the doors quickly before he contacts avatar Roku!" another sage said. All of the sages opened the doors. I got ready to attack. When they opened it they saw Momo. "It's the avatar's lemur; he must have crawled through the lock's pipes! We've been tricked!" Momo jumped onto the sage's face. Katara and Sokka took on another two while I grabbed another sage and Shyu got the last one in a head lock. "Now Aang!" he said. Aang didn't run.

"Aang! Go now!" I yelled. I saw two figures come out from behind the pillar, one was holding Aang back, it was brother!

"The avatar is coming with me." Brother said. The sages we were fighting fought back and grabbed us. "Close the doors, quickly." Brother commanded the sages. Katara, Sokka, Shyu and I were all chained to one of the pillars. I saw Aang fight Zuko back and kick him down the stairs. Aang was running to free us.

"Run to the doors!" I yelled. He nodded and headed to the door. He managed to jump past a sage and through the doors right before they closed.

"He made it!" Katara said. The door glowed blue, I winced from the light. The four remaining sages and brother tried to open the door.

"Why isn't it working, its sealed shut!" brother yelled.

"It must have been the light, avatar Roku doesn't want us inside." A sage said.

"Noooo." I said sarcastically.

"Why did you help the avatar?" Brother demanded Shyu.

"Because it was once the sage's duty, it is still our duty." Shyu answered. I heard a clapping coming from somewhere, I growled like an animal as I saw General Zhao.

"What a moving and heartfelt performance." He said "I'm certain the Fire Lord will understand when you explain why you betrayed him."

"Commander Zhao." The sage said.

"Zuko, it was a noble effort but your little smoke screen didn't work, two traitors in one day, the Fire Lord will be pleased." Zhao said.

"You're too late Zhao! The avatar is inside and the doors are sealed." Brother said.

"No matter, sooner or later he has to come out." Zhao said.

"NO!" I yelled. Zhao looked over at me and walked over. He looked into my eyes and laughed.

"Ah, Princess Hotaru, how nice to meet you, I'm sure your father will be happy to see you." Zhao said. He pulled up the sleeve of my burnt arm and said "I'm sure your sister enjoyed writing that, maybe she should try again?" I cowered back, not Azula, she was terrifying; she was one of the only things I was scared of, her and father. He laughed at my expression and said to his fire benders "When the doors open you unleash all of your fire on the avatar."

"How's Aang gonna get out of this?" Katara asked.

"How are we gonna make it out of this?!" Sokka asked, he looked at me.

"Hey, my arm is broken, find a way out yourself." I scoffed. Suddenly the door glowed again and started to open. I looked away from the light otherwise I'd probably be blinded.

"READY!" Zhao yelled. A pair of glowing eyes appeared in the dark room.

"NO! AANG!" Katara yelled.

"FIRE!" Zhao yelled. They all fired at the door at the same time with all the force they had. The fire was bent out of the way, when I looked at the figure bending I recognised them straight away, it was avatar Roku.

"Avatar Roku." Shyu stuttered. Roku sent all the fire in the opposite direction; it knocked the fire benders back and melted the chains around us. When I was free I made sure that Shyu, Katara and Sokka were okay, they were all fine, but Zuko was also free. "Avatar Roku is going to destroy the temple." Shyu warned "We have to get out of here!"

"Not without Aang." Katara said. Avatar Roku split the ground in half and pulled lava through it, it went through the roof of the building. Suddenly Roku took a deep breath in and disappeared leaving Aang behind. I ran straight away and caught him with my good arm. I pulled him up and smiled, I let him go as he regained his balance.

"We got your back." Sokka said.

"Thanks." Aang replied "Where's Shyu?"

"I don't know." Katara answered. When we tried to leave through the stairs they were flooded, with lava. There was a hole in the wall though. Suddenly we saw Momo, Oppa and Sadie, as they flew past the hole we slid down the roof and jumped onto the saddle. I fell back onto Sadie and started laughing nervously, same with the others. That night as we were all flying along we relaxed and hugged it out. Patch stretched out along my shoulders and went to sleep while I leant against Sadie. And with that, I welcomed the sweet feeling of sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning Aang woke up and started pacing so Sokka had to drive. "Will you sit down?! If we hit a bump you'll go flying, what's bugging you anyway?" Sokka asked.

"It's what avatar Roku said. I'm supposed to master all four elements before Fire Lord Ozai uses a comet to win the war next summer!" Aang ranted.

"Well, let's see, you pretty much mastered air bending and that only took you 112 years. I'm sure you can master three more elements by next summer." Sokka said.

"You're not helping." I said scratching Patch behind the ear, I found out that Patch was a boy.

"I haven't even started water bending and we're still weeks away from the North Pole!" Aang said "WHAT AM I GONNA DO?!" I grabbed his wrist and pulled him down so he was sitting.

"First of all, calm down, it's gonna be okay." I said.

"If you want, I can teach you some of the stuff I know?" Katara asked.

"Teach me too!" I said.

"Fine." She laughed.

"You'd do that?" Aang asked.

"We'll need to find a good source of water first though." Katara said.

"Maybe we can find a nice puddle for you to splash in." Sokka mocked. We soon got to a massive river with a beautiful waterfall. "Nice puddle." Sokka said. I laughed as Patch jumped into the water along with Sadie, they both started splashing around. Oppa and Momo also got themselves soaked in the water.

"Don't start without me boy!" Aang yelled, he was about to jump in with Oppa.

"Remember the reason we're here." Katara said.

"Oh right, time to practice water bending." Aang said.

"Great, so…what am I supposed to do?" Sokka asked.

"You could clean the gunk out of Oppa's toes?" Aang said, he handed Sokka branch.

"So while you guys are playing with water I get to go hard at work and clean mud out of a giant bison' feet?" Sokka asked.

"Mud and bugs." Aang grinned.

"Okay." He shrugged. He took the branch off of Aang and walked over to Oppa. Katara started teaching.

"This is a basic move, but it still took me months to perfect." Katara said "So, don't be frustrated if you don't get it right away. Just push and pull the water like this." She moved her form inwards and outwards, making a very small wave with the water. "The key is getting the wrist movement right." Aang and I stood up and walked to the edge. I focused my chi and copied what Katara was doing.

"Like this?" Aang asked.

"That's almost right, if you keep practicing then I'm sure that eventually-"she started.

"Hey, I'm bending it already." I said.

"Me too!" Aang said. We were both making a wave about twice the size of Katara's.

"How are you doing that?" she asked me.

"I can already fire bend, so I know how to focus my chi already." I said.

"I still can't believe you got that so quickly." She said "It took me two months to learn that move."

"Well, you had to figure it out all on your own, we're lucky enough to have a great teacher." Aang said. When Katara wasn't looking I gave him a high five and said "Nice save."

"Thanks." He said. Next Katara showed us another move.

"This is a more difficult move; I like to call it 'streaming the water'." Katara said. She got some water out of the river and moved it around her. "It's harder than it looks so don't be disappointed if," she cut herself off. Aang and I were literally dancing around with the water, it was so easy. She dropped her water with a splash whereas Aang and I gracefully slid ours back into the water. "Nice work, though the over the head flair was a little too much." She said to Aang.

"Oh sorry, well anyway, don't stop now, keep em coming!" Aang chirped.

"Well, I kind of know this one other move, but it's pretty hard, I haven't even totally figured it out yet, the idea is to create a big powerful wave." She moved back and swung her arms up, it started to make a wave but she dropped it.

"Aim for Sokka." I nudged Aang, he laughed and nodded. I took a deep breath in and did the same as Katara at the same time with Aang. We made a massive wave that landed on top of Sokka and drenched him.

"UH! GUYS!" he yelled.

"Looks like we got the hang of that move." I said.

"Yeah, what else you got?" Aang asked.

"I think that's enough practicing for today." Katara growled.

"Yeah, I'll say, you practiced our supplies down the river!" Sokka complained I looked past him; we had just washed all of our food and other stuff away.

"I'm sure we can replace it somehow." I said hopefully. We walked to a town nearby; the docks were full of ships and travelling merchants. I had two copper pieces to myself and the others had three. I was walking around all the fire nation stalls. I finally got to a stall and saw a beautiful bracelet, it was a thick leather one that you tie on, imprinted into the leather were the symbols for all four nations. I handed over one copper piece to the person behind the stall and got the bracelet; I put it into my pocket and went to join the others.

"We have exactly three copper pieces left from the money that King Bumi gave us." Sokka explained "We need to spend it wisely."

"Actually, two-two copper pieces." Aang said, rubbing the back of his head in an embarrassed fashion.

"What did you buy?" I asked with my hands on my hips.

"I couldn't say no to this whistle." Aang said, he held up a whistle that was shaped like a bison. He took a deep breath in and blew, Sokka covered his ears expecting a very loud noise, but the whistle was muted, it wouldn't blow properly.

"It doesn't even work." Sokka said. Momo made a weird clicking noise. "See, even Momo thinks it's a piece of junk."

"No offence Aang, but I'll hold the money from now on." Katara said, she got the money off of Aang. We walked through the stalls until we got to the boats.

"Earth Nation! Fire Nation! Water Nation! So long as a bargain is your inclination, you're welcome here!" I heard someone yell from in front of a boat. Suddenly that guy who was shouting ran up to Sokka and said "You there, I can see from your clothing that you're world travelling types, perhaps I can interest you in some exotic curios?" We carried on walking apart from Aang he stayed back.

"Sure, what are curios?" Aang asked.

"I'm not entirely sure but we got 'em!" the guy said. He put his arm around Aang's shoulders and took him aboard the ship, Katara, Sokka and I had no choice but to follow them. We started looking around the ship.

"I've never seen such a fine specimen of lemur, that beast would fetch me a hefty some if you'd be interesting in bartering?" growled a giant guy with a big hat and a reptile bird on his shoulder. The bird on his shoulder squawked and Momo hissed.

"Momo's not for sale." Aang said, he hugged Momo. I looked around and saw nothing that really interested me.

"Look at this Hotaru, Aang," Katara said, we walked over and looked at what she was looking at, it looked like a water bending scroll "It's a water bending scroll!" She said, I was right. "Check out these crazy moves!" she said in awe.

"Where did you guys get a water bending scroll?" I asked the guy with the reptile bird.

"Let's just say I got it up North at the most reasonable price…free." He slammed down the scroll and rolled it up before putting it away.

"Wait a minute…sea loving traders, with suspiciously required merchandise and pet reptile birds!" Sokka said "You guys are pirates!" he exclaimed.

"We prefer to think of ourselves as _high risk traders."_ The guy said, putting his arm around Sokka's shoulders.

"So, how much for the-uh-traded-scroll?" Katara asked, our two copper pieces in hand.

"I've already got a buyer, a nobleman in the Earth Kingdom, unless of course you kids have two hundred gold pieces on you right now?" the lizard bird owner said.

"I know how to deal with these guys, pirates love to haggle." Aang said, he held his hand out, Katara gave him the money.

"I'll be waiting outside." I said. They nodded. I walked outside and sat down; Patch crawled out from his space in my shirt. I laughed as he crawled up my body and sat on my shoulder; he wrapped his tail around my neck and sat there comfortably. A few minutes went by before I heard the others come out of the ship.

"What was that about Katara?" Aang asked.

"Yeah, I was just starting to browse their boomerang collection." Sokka said.

"I'll just feel a lot better once we get away from here." Katara said nervously. I frowned and got up, we started walking away.

"HEY THERE! Wait you!" I heard the pirate from before yell.

"Well well, look who's come to their senses, told ya the haggling would pay off." Aang smirked. Many of the pirates came off of the ship with their weapons.

"Uh, I don't think these pirates are here to trade with us." Katara said. We started to run away. We ran through some streets, one street we ran down had a cart of cabbages. I ran past and knocked one off by accident, then Katara knocked one off when she came past, then Sokka knocked one off when he came past, when Aang went past he jumped through the cabbage cart and didn't knock any off, then he sent a wave of air through the cabbage kart, it flew back and hit the three pirates behind it. "This city is even worse than Omashu!" the cabbage guy said. When we ran forward three pirates appeared in front of us. We turned back and ran away from the pirates.

"I hope that lemur of yours has nine lives!" a pirate threatened. We eventually came to a dead end. "Now, who gets to taste the steel of my blades first?" the pirate asked, flashing his blades. I started to step forward, I don't back away from challenges. Katara caught my arm.

"One of your arms is broken, normally you could beat all three of these guys on your own, but not now." She said. I nodded in agreement. Aang blasted wind at them, they were knocked back. Aang threw his glider and jumped on "GRAB ON!" he yelled. We nodded and hung onto the gilder.

"I thought we were running away from the pirates?!" Katara yelled, we were flying to the pirates.

"Just hand on!" Aang said. As soon as we got to them Aang air bended the air around his glider and lifted us up. Katara, Sokka and I hopped across the pirate's heads. We flew back to our camp. When we got there I fell to the ground and laughed hard.

"That was so fun." I said.

"Yeah, it was. I used to kind of look up to pirates but those guys were terrible." Aang said.

"Yeah, I know, that's why I took this." Katara said, she held out the water scroll!

"No. Way." Aang said.

"Isn't it great?!" Katara said enthusiastically.

"No. No wonder they were trying to hack us up! You stole their water bending scroll!" Sokka said angrily.

"I prefer to call it _high risk trading."_ Katara said.

"Hah, good one." Aang said.

"Sokka, where do you think they got it? They stole it from a water bender!" Katara said to her brother.

"It doesn't matter; you put all of our lives in danger, just so that you could learn some fancy magic splashes." Sokka said.

"These are real water bending forms; you know how crucial it is for Aang to learn water bending." Katara said.

"Pfff, whatever." Sokka scoffed before walking away.

"Well, what's done is done, we have it, we might as well learn from it." Aang said.

"Yeah, thank you Katara, we all need that scroll." I said. She nodded thankfully and laid the scroll on a tree stump. I looked over the moves and frowned.

"What?" She asked.

"All of these moves require two arms." I said, waving my one working arm around.

"You practice what we've done already then." Katara said. I nodded and smiled. I walked over to the edge of the water and took off my top layer of clothes, leaving my swimming costume. Patch ran over and jumped onto my shoulder. I canon balled into the water and swam around with Sadie, Patch and Oppa. When I was done swimming I got out and dried off before going into the woods and gathering wood for the fire. I came back and put it all in a pile before setting fire to it using fire bending. Aang slept on his fur blanket and I got into my sleeping bag and left Sokka to eat his food, Katara got into her sleeping bag as well. I was curling up against Sadie and Patch was nestled on my shoulder.

In the morning I was awoken by Sokka saying "Hey! Where'd she go?" I blinked the last traces of sleep from my eyes and looked over at where Katara would normally sleep, her sleeping bag was empty. "I don't believe it." He said. I stretched my good arm and sat up.

"What's wrong?" Aang asked.

"She took the scroll!" Sokka said angrily "She's obsessed with that thing, it's just a matter of time before she gets us all in-"A length of cord was thrown around Sokka's wrists. Patch ran up my body to my shoulder and hid behind my hair.

"Sokka!" I yelled. I jumped in front of Sokka and slid my foot under the guy attacking Sokka, he went down to the floor, I didn't accept fire bending training, I said nothing about close range combat, I could also fight with almost any weapon. Sokka grabbed his club and ran at the guy I had just knocked over, he was now getting up. I saw something being fired at Aang, a net wrapped around him. I felt a foot in my back, I was kicked down to the floor.

"We got him." The pirate said. They dragged Aang off.

"Oh what? We're not good enough to kid nap?!" Sokka asked. A net was fired around Sokka and then another one around me.

"Damnit Sokka!" I said. We were dragged to the shore somewhere else where I saw a fire nation ship, why did it always have to belong to Brother?! We were taken out of our nets and then roped were tied around our wrists, mine was tied around my body because the other arm was taped to my side. "I wouldn't have expected you to get caught by these novices sister?" Brother mocked.

"Well it's kind of hard when you only have one working arm." I retorted. I looked behind brother "Oh, high Uncle." I said.

"Hi." Uncle said.

"I'm sorry Aang, this is all my fault." Katara said.

"No, no it's not." Aang said kindly.

"It kind of is." Uncle said.

"Give me the boy." Brother said. He had the scroll in his hands.

"You give us the scroll." The pirates said.

"You're really going to hand over the avatar for a stupid piece of parchment?" Sokka exclaimed to the pirates.

"Don't listen to him!" brother said "He's trying to turn us against each other!"

"Hotaru, use the princess card." Sokka whispered, I sighed angrily and nodded.

"Didn't you know you stupid pirates, he is the avatar and I'm princess Hotaru of the fire nation, I'll have you all imprisoned." I said.

"Yeah right, the fire nation princess Hotaru has a scar on her arm." One of the pirates said. I shuffled around my arm, pulled up my sleeve and showed my scar, I smirked at brother's face.

"Okay, you're the princess, but we can easily run from the fire lord, but, your friend is the avatar?" the lead pirate asked.

"Sure is, and I'm sure he'll fetch a lot more on the black market than that fancy scroll." Sokka said.

"Shut your mouth you water tribe peasants!" Brother said.

"Yeah, shut your mouth." Aang said.

"I'm just saying, it's bad business sense, just imagine how much the Fire Lord would pay for the avatar, you guys would be set for life." Sokka bargained.

"Keep the scroll, we can buy a hundred with the rewards we'd get from the avatar." The bird owner pirate said.

"You'll regret breaking a deal with me." Brother said darkly. He and two soldiers blasted some fire in our direction; we all jumped out of the way. One of the pirates through some smoke bombs in the soldier's direction. A large cloud of smoke erupted. I said "Patch, can you do anything about the ropes?" I heard a mumble in reply. I felt Patch scamper around underneath my jacket. He crawled out my sleeve and started chewing on the ropes, finally I was freed. I jumped up and looked around; there was a big cloud of smoke around us as well now.

"Aang, where are you?!" I heard Sokka yell.

"Yeah! Where?!" I asked.  
>"I'm over here!" Aang said, but I didn't see him "Follow my voice!" he said.<p>

"I can't find you!" Both Sokka and I repeated time and time again.

"I'm right here!" he yelled loudly "Uh-NEVER MIND! I'll find you!" I heard him yell. I crawled across the floor and dodged flying weapons and fighting pirates and soldiers. I bumped into someone else as I was crawling, it was Sokka. I let out a breath of relief; we kept crawling when finally we came out of the cloud of smoke. "RUN!" Aang yelled, he jumped over us. I pushed myself to my feet with my good arm and ran after Aang. We ran over the beach and saw Katara pushing a ship "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Help me get this boat back into the water so we can get outta here." Katara said. We all started pushing, but it didn't work.

"We need a team of rhinos to budge this ship!" Sokka complained.

"A team of rhinos…or three water benders." Aang smirked. Aang, Katara and I got into place and moved the water in and out under the boat, we were making a tide. Eventually the ship lifted off of the floor and was on the water.

"Everybody in!" Katara yelled. We pulled ourselves up on the ladder and sailed down the river.

"Check behind us." Aang said soon after we left. I ran across the ship and looked behind us, I didn't like what I saw. "Uh-we got just a small problem, pirates in a fire nation ship!" I yelled to Aang.  
>"Sokka! Can't you make this ship go any faster?!" Aang asked.<p>

"I don't know how, this thing wasn't made by the water tribe." Sokka panicked. The fire nation ship was next to us now and the pirates jumped onto our stolen boat. Aang brought up a massive wave and washed all but one pirate off the ship. Katara used the move that she couldn't do. She pulled water out of a puddle and used the water whip, she wacked the pirate off of the ship.

"You did it!" I exclaimed.

"I couldn't have done it without Aang's help." Katara said happily.

"Would you guys it congratulating each other and help me out?" Sokka said, he was getting bombarded by three of the biggest pirates. I jumped down from where I was standing and used fire to kick one guy off of the ship, and then Aang blew another one off. I pushed another one over the side and gave Aang a high five.

"This isn't over, look!" Katara yelled. I looked in front of the ship, there was a massive waterfall. Aang pulled out his whistle and blew it.

"Have you lost your mind?!" Sokka yelled "This is no time for flute practice

"We can stop the boat, we need to work together!" Katara said. I ran to the front with Aang and got to water bending. "Push and pull the water." Katara said. I nodded and took a deep breath in. I used my free arm to lean forward and pull back, the water moved with my actions. The ship started to slow down and turn around. "It's working! It's slowing down!" Katara said "We're doing it!" she said. We had stopped the ship from going over the edge.

"Yeah, but we have another problem!" Sokka said unhappily. He pointed back, I looked back, it was the fire nation ship. It wacked into us and pushed us forward, the boat tilted so we fell to the edge.

"JUMP!" Aang yelled. We jumped off of the boat and fell through the air. Suddenly Oppa swooped down and caught us in his saddle. "I knew a bison whistle would come in handy." Aang smiled. I laughed and nodded. I stroked Sadie and then the shaking Patch. He licked my fingers and settled back down. "Thanks Oppa." Aang said.

"Yeah, we owe you one." Sokka said. We flew above the clouds calmly. I leant against Sadie and started grinning because we were out of trouble.

"Aang, I owe you an apology." Katara said "You were just so good at water bending without really trying, I got so competitive that I put us all in danger, I'm sorry."

"That's okay Katara." Aang smiled.

"Besides, who needs that stupid scroll anyway?" Katara scoffed.

"I do." I muttered to myself so that nobody else could hear.

"Is that really how you feel?" Sokka asked, he held out the water bending scroll.

"The scroll!" Katara exclaimed, she went forward to grab it. Sokka pulled it back and held her at arm's length.

"First, what did you learn?" Sokka asked.

"Stealing is wrong." Katara said. Sokka handed the scroll over "Unless it's from pirates!" Katara smirked. Aang and I couldn't help but laugh at that. We sat down and relaxed, I looked at each of them in turn, who cares about Ozai, and mother, and Zuko, and Azula, these guys were my family. I smiled and leant back.


	10. Chapter 10

Over the past few weeks we travelled and trained, it was a lot easier to water bend now that my arm was healed, I had also put on the bracelet. At the moment we were in the middle of a forest so Patch and Momo loved it. We were sitting down to give Oppa and Sadie a rest, we had been riding them a lot, when Aang asked "Where's Momo?" Then, as if on cue, we heard Momo squeal. We walked to where Momo was and saw that he was hanging in a ball cage in a tree. Aang jumped up using air bending. "Hang on Momo!" Aang yelled.

"Hey! I wanna have some of the fun!" I yelled up to Aang. I pulled out two of my knives and lodged them into the tree so that I could climb the tree. When I got to the top of the tree I saw Aang inspecting the contraption holding Momo up.

"How do we release him?" Aang asked. I looked at the wheel.

"You hold this and I'll lower him down." I said pointing where I wanted him to hold. Aang grabbed the rope while I hung upside down on the tree and started undoing the many twists and turning all the wheels and cogs. Momo was lowered down, when he got to the bottom Katara and Sokka opened the cage, Momo scurried out and continued to eat the nut that he had. I swung down the trees back to the floor whereas Aang just hopped down. We looked up at the other animals in cages, they were whimpering.

"Can you free the others Aang?" I asked. He nodded and jumped up and started to look at the roped again.

"Ugh, this is gonna take forever." Sokka groaned, he pulled out his boomerang and threw it, cut all the ropes, freed all the animals, and caught his boomerang.

"Thanks Sokka!" I chirped, high fiving him.

"That works." Aang said, he came back down to the forest floor. Sokka studied the cages.

"These are fire nation traps." He informed us.

"It's bad enough they were hunting people, now animals too!" I yelled furiously.

"Yeah, you can tell from the metal work." Sokka informed us "We better pack up camp and get moving." Sokka suggested. We all nodded and went back to where we were set up and started packing. We were passing our stuff up to Aang when Sokka said "No, no flying this time." He took the stuff off of Aang and brought it back down.

"What? Why shouldn't we fly?" Aang asked.

"Think about it, somehow prince Zuko and the fire nation keeps finding us, it's because they spot Oppa, he's just too noticeable." Sokka explained.

"What? Oppa's not too noticeable!" Katara complained.

"He's a gigantic fluffy monster with an arrow on his head…it's kind of hard to miss him." Sokka said. I laughed and nodded. Oppa roared.

"Sokka's just jealous because he doesn't have an arrow." Aang patted Oppa.

"I know you all wanna fly, but my instincts tell me to go by foot this time." Sokka said.

"Who made you the boss?" Katara asked.

"I'm not the boss…I'm the leader." Sokka said.

"Pfff, ha-ha, you're the leader, but your voice still cracks." Katara laughed.

"I'm the oldest, and I'm a warrior-" his voice was cracking so he put on a fake deep voice and continued "So I'm the leader."

"If anyone's the leader, it's Aang, I mean, he is the avatar." Katara said.

"Are you kidding, he's just a goofy kid?!" Sokka asked.

"Awwww, have baby Sokka's feelings been hurt." I laughed.

"Why do boys always think that someone has to be the leader?" Katara asked "I bet you wouldn't be so bossy if you had kissed a girl."

"I've kissed a girl, you just haven't met her." Sokka said.

"Who? Grangran?" Katara mocked. I was doubled over laughing by now at their sibling rivalry, it was so normal, when I did this with Azula or Zuko it would end with a fire bending duel.

"No, besides Grangran." Sokka said "Look, my instincts tell me we have a better chance of slipping by unnoticed on foot."

"I agree with Sokka." I said. I got onto the new saddle I had bought for Sadie, I tied my stud to the saddle and pulled myself up.

"Fine, we'll try it your way oh wise leader." Katara said.

"Walking might be fun!" Aang said happily. We were walking for a while when he complained "Walking stinks, how long has it been anyway!"

"Oh-about ten minutes." I said.

"How do people go anywhere without a flying bison?!" Aang asked.

"By giant polar bear dog." I laughed.

"Why don't you ask Sokka's instincts, they seem to know everything." Katara said angrily.

"I'm tired of carrying this bag." Aang moaned.

"Ooooh-I know- why don't you ask Sokka's instincts to carry it?!" Katara said.

"That's a great idea…hey, Sokka's instincts, would you mind-" Aang said.

"OKAY! I get it, look guys, I'm tired too but the important thing is that we're safe from the…fire…nation." Sokka said, he walked through some bushes to somewhere, he paused. I looked at the camp ahead of us, it was a fire nation camp. "RUN!" Sokka yelled, Aang, Katara and Sokka dropped their bags so that they could run faster. We got blocked in by the soldiers there. "If you let us past then we'll promise not to hurt you." Sokka said.

"What are you doing?" Katara asked.

"Bluffing." Sokka whispered back.

"_You_ promise not to hurt _us_?" one of the soldiers with an eye patch said. Suddenly he fell to the floor. I guess someone else was fighting them with us. I jumped off of Sadie and grabbed my knives. I went to attacking the fire nation soldiers and knocking them down one by one. People were fighting from the trees "They're coming from the trees!" a soldier yelled.

"No duh!" I said. I saw one guy attacking some soldiers that I knew, these two soldiers were mean to me when I was little, because I was a girl they mocked my fighting skill, of course that was back when I couldn't fight. I kicked the guy who was fighting them out of the way; he was a teenage boy with hook swords. He fell to his back and looked at me in surprise.

"Yes, I'm a little prissy girl alright!" I yelled. I attacked both of the fire benders at once; I defeated both of them expertly and quickly. After a few more minutes all of the fire benders were either unconscious or dead. I joined Aang, Katara and Sokka, I was panting. "I missed doing that." I said, moving my healed arm around.

"Hi, I'm Jet and these are my freedom fighters." Jet said, he then said all of their names "Sneers, Longshot, Smellerbee, The Duke and Pipsqueak." Pipsqueak was a massive dude that would flatten me if he fell on me.

"HAHAHA, Pipsqueak." Aang laughed, I walked over to him with Aang "That's a funny name." he said. Aang and I were sniggering.

"You think my name is funny?" he said deeply and scarily.

"Yup." I laughed.

"It's hilarious." Aang added. Pipsqueak started laughing, he patted Aang and I on the back, but we ended up being knocked over and face planting in the ground. We looted the Fire Nation camp. Sokka looked at everyone scornfully as we did. While I was playing with Patch Jet walked over. I don't know why, but I hated him straight away.

"You have skill." He said.

"Thanks." I said plainly.

"Where did you learn to fight." He asked.

"None of your business." I replied.

"Be nice to Jet!" Katara demanded.

"Why should I?" I asked.

"He saved us." She said.

"Oh please, I could have fought all of them with one of my hands behind my back, you know I can, I actually did that with pirates!" I said.

"Wow." Jet said.

"Don't you have somewhere else to be?" I asked meanly. I walked over to Sadie and got her up on her feet; I took off her saddle and put it on Oppa's saddle with the rest of our stuff.

"Hey jet, these barrels are filled with blasting Jelly!" the Duke yelled to Jet.

"That's a great score." Jet said.

"And these boxes are filled with Jelly candy!" Pipsqueak said.

"Also good. "Jet said "Let's not get those mixed up." Jet said,

"Only an idiot would do that, oh wait, you are." I scowled at Jet. Aang ran over to me.

"I've never heard you speak like this, not even to your brother?" Aang asked.

"I don't like him." I stated clearly.

"Can you try to be nice for now?" Aang asked.

"Bu-"

"Pleeeeaaaase!" Aang asked.

"Fine." I stamped my foot and walked over to Jet. I held out my hand for him to shake and said "My friend here has asked me to be nice, so, let's start over, my name's Lori." There was no way I was telling a fire nation hater my real name.

"Hey Lori." He said lazily and shook my hand. I smiled and turned around, then scowled.

"We'll take this stiff back to hideout!" The Duke called over to Jet.

"You have a hideout?" Aang asked.

"You wanna see it?" Jet asked.

"Yes, we wanna see it." Katara pleaded. We walked through the forest, well, I rode on Sadie and sharpened my weapons with a stone. We suddenly stopped "We're here." Jet said.

"Where? There's nothing here." Sokka said. Jet grabbed a rope and said "Hold this. Sokka took it in his hand.

"Why, what's this do?" Sokka asked. He was suddenly yanked into the trees.

"Aang." Jet said, he went to go and give another rope to Aang.

"I can get up on my own." Aang said. He jumped up the trees using air bending.

"Lori." He said. I lay Sadie down against the tree by a bush and then grabbed the rope. I was pulled into the tree very fast. When I got to the top I jumped off and landed on a branch. There were decks and zip lines everywhere. I grabbed onto one with Aang and we swung around the whole place. When Jet and Katara got up Aang and I said in unison "Nice place you got here." I landed down by Jet and Katara on a bridge, Jet said that his parents were killed by fire nation and Katara said that her mother was killed by the fire nation.

"Who are your family?" Jet asked me.

"I don't really have one…well, that's not true, Aang, Sokka and Katara are my family." I smiled. Aang swung by and yelled for me to get on. I jumped off the bridge, Aang caught my hands and hauled me back up, he used air bending to propel us forward.

That night there was a big feast, I stuffed my face with all the food they had. "Any meat?" I asked. Jet shook his head, I scowled. He stood up and made a toast "Today we struck another blow against the fire nation swine!" he said. Everyone cheered. "I got a special joy on the look of one soldier's face when the Duke dropped down on his helmet and rode him like a wild Hog Monkey!" The Duke paraded around. "Now, the Fire Nation thinks they don't have to worry about a couple of kids in the trees, maybe their right," everyone booed "Or maybe, they're dead wrong!" Even I had to cheer at that.

"Hey Jet, nice speech." Katara said to him when he sat next to her.

"Thanks, I was really impressed with you, Aang and Lori, that was some great bending and fighting I saw out there." Jet said, I smiled through gritted teeth.

"Well, he's great and she's a great fighter, and she's a bender, and he's the avatar, I could use some more training." Katara said.

"Avatar huh?" Jet asked "Very nice."

"Thanks Jet." Aang said.

"And you, you're a bender that is great with weapons, don't see many of those these days." Jet said.

"Thanks." I said "Seriously, any meat?" I asked. He shook his head. I sighed and stood up. I walked to Longshot and asked "Can I borrow those?" he nodded.

"What are you doing?" Jet asked.

"I learnt to fight with any weapon, I think I can go and catch some food." I said. I jumped down from the trees and went out hunting.

When I came back I dropped the animals I caught in front of Jet "Tomorrow's meals are sorted." I smiled.

"Fair enough…Smellerbee, take the animals round back and prepare them to be eaten." Jet said. Smellerbee nodded and took the animals. "What element do you bend?" Jet asked.

"Water." I replied.

"Well, I know a way that you, Aang and Katara can help in our struggle." He said.

"Unfortunately we have to leave tonight." Sokka said.

"Sokka, you're kidding me? I needed you on an important mission tomorrow." Jet said. 'well played Jet, well played.' I thought to myself.

"What mission?" Sokka asked. Jet explained the mission, and I agreed to coming?!

The next morning we were on our mission, Jet was surprised about how stealthily I could move around the forest. We were on a tree, Jet let out a bird whistle signal and got a reply from the others who were all in different trees. Sokka stabbed his knife into a tree. "What are you doing?" Jet asked him.

"Shhhh, it amplifies vibrations." Sokka said, he put his ear against the hilt of the knife.

"Good trick." Jet said.

"Nothing yet, wait-yes, someone's approaching." Sokka said.

"How many?" Jet asked.

"I think there's just one." Sokka said. Jet let out a different signal.

"Good works Sokka, now, ready your weapon." Jet said "You too Lori." He said. I nodded and pulled out one of my knives. Sokka took out his weapon and got ready. I looked at who was approaching; it was a fire nation old man.

"Wait! False alarm, he's just an old man." Sokka whispered. Jet got his weapons out anyway and got ready to attack. He jumped down to the floor. I gasped.

"What are you doing in our woods you leach?" Jet growled at the old man.

"Please Sir, I'm just a traveller." The old man said, Jet raised his sword and wacked the old man's cane away. Pipsqueak appeared behind the old man and knocked him over. I know Jet hated the fire nation but the fire nation weren't evil, father was, and most of the soldiers. Pipsqueak put his foot on the old man's back.

"Do you like burning towns, do you like destroying families, DO YOU?!" Jet hissed at the old man.

"Please, let me go, have mercy." The old man begged.

"Does the fire nation let people go?! Does the fire nation have mercy?!" Jet said. I couldn't take this anymore. I jumped down with Sokka, jet was about to kick the old man, Sokka caught his foot with his club.

"Jet! He's just an old man!" Sokka yelled.

"He's fire nation! Search him!" Jet said. I looked Jet long and hard in the eyes.

"Not all fire nation are evil." I said.

"How would you know?" he asked. I shook my head and refused to answer.

"He's not hurting anyone." Sokka said.

"Have you forgotten that the fire nation killed your mother, remember why you two fight." Jet said.

"We got his stuff Jet." Smellerbee said.

"This doesn't feel right." Sokka said.

"it's what has to be done, now let's get out of here." Jet said, he and his freedom fighters pushed past us. "Come one!" Jet yelled.

"Okay!" Sokka yelled, he ran off after them. I bent down to help the old man. I pulled him up and dug through my pockets. I put some nuts and berries in his hand so he would be okay.

"But, I'm fire nation." The old man said.

"So am I." I smiled.

"What?" the old man asked.

"I want to stop Fire Lord Ozai and the war; I don't want to hurt innocent people." I said "This food should tie you over, they have extra protein so they should be enough for the next few days."

"Thank you." The old man said. I nodded and jumped back into the trees. I watched to make sure the old man travelled okay before going back to camp. I sat down with Sokka when I got back. Soon Katara came and asked "Hey guys, is Jet back?"

"Yeah, he's back." I said.

"But we're leaving." Sokka said.

"What?!" Aang said.

"But I made him this hat." Katara said, she pulled out a fluffy wool hat with a flower on the top.

"You're boyfriend Jet's a thug." Sokka said.

"What, no he's not." Katara said.

"He's messed up Katara." Sokka said.

"He's not messed up, he's just got a different way of life, a really fun way of life." Aang said.

"He tried to beat and robbed a harmless old man." I yelled.

"I wanna hear Jet's side of the story." Katara said.

We went to where jet was, Katara asked him about what had happened. Jet said "You told them what happened but you forgot to mention the guy was fire nation?"

"No, they conveniently left that part out." Katara scowled.

"Fine, but even if he was fire nation, he was a harmless civilian." Sokka said.

"Yeah, he wasn't a soldier or anything." I said.

"We was an assassin." Jet said. Jet took out a knife and stabbed it into the wall beside of him. He started unscrewing the top of the dagger "See, there's a compartment in the knife." He pulled out a vial of orange liquid. "He was sent to eliminate me." Jet said "You two helped save my life."

"I knew there was an explanation." Katara smiled.

"I didn't see any knife." Sokka said.

"That's because he was concealing it." Jet said.

"See you two; I'm sure you two didn't notice the knife." Katara said.

"No, Fire Nation are proud people, they don't do that sort of thing, honour is everything to them." I said.

"How would you know?" Katara asked.

"How many times had Zuko talked about his honour?" I asked sarcastically.

"Good point." Aang said.

"There was no knife!" Sokka yelled "I'm going back to the hut and packing my things. Jet looked at me. I sighed.

"I'll stay and help, because of Aang and Katara." I said, I smiled at them as they hugged me.

"If you guys flood the reservoir then we can fight the fires." Jet said "But if you three leave now then they'll destroy the whole valley." Aang and Katara went to talk to Sokka while I decided to ride around on the zip lines again.

After I was done I went to sleep because I was bored. The next morning we were taken down into the valley. While we were walking Aang was blown up by a massive geyser. "Okay, we're here." Jet said "Underground water is trying to escape from these vents, I need you guys to help it along."

"I've never used bending on water I can't see. I don't know." Katara said worriedly.

"Katara, you can do this." Jet said with his hands on her shoulders, I just wanted to wack that smug grin off of his face.

"What about me?" Aang asked.

"I know the avatar can do this." Jet said. We walked over to one of the steam vents and concentrated. We moved our arms up and down and brought the water out of the hole in the ground. When we thought that we had brought out enough we let go of it and the water poured into the small stream. "Yes, good job, this river empties into the reservoir, a few more geysers and I'll be full." Jet said.

"Look, there's another one!" Aang said, we walked over to it.

"Okay, you three keep it up, I'll go check on things at the reservoir."Jet said.

"When we're done we'll meet you over there." Katara said.

"Actually, probably better if you meet me back at the hideout when you're done." Jet said. We nodded and got most of the geysers flowing into the stream.

"Let's go catch up with Jet at the reservoir." Katara said.

"But we sai-" I started.

"Well, we finished early, I'm sure he'll be happy to see us." Katara said.

When we got there we saw the freedom fighters lining up the exploding jelly along the dam stopping the water flowing into the nearby Earth Kingdom village. They were going to blow up the dam, but that would destroy the whole village. Aang went to go and fly down to stop jet with his glider but it was snatched from above him by Jet.

"Why Jet?" Katara asked.

"If you think about you would too, think about what they did to your mother, we can't let them do that to anyone else ever again." Jet said.

"This isn't the answer." Katara pleaded.

"I want you to understand me Katara, I thought your brother would understand but-" Jet started.

"Where's Sokka?!" Katara demanded, she started crying. Katara hit Jet with a water whip and let him fall to the floor.

"I need to get to the dam." Aang said. Aang ended up getting into a fight with Jet, well it was Jet doing the fighting, Aang didn't want to fight. They went off down the forest so all Katara and I could do was wait. Katara ran off into the forest while I kept an eye on the dam. I was deep in thought when suddenly I heard a big 'BANG!'. The dam had been destroyed. Water rushed down the valley and engulfed the village. I collapsed to my knees in sadness. I ran to the forest and found Jet. He said "You're too late, the fire nation is gone."

"The villagers will be safe!" someone yelled, I looked back and grinned, Sokka was riding Oppa and Sadie was there too along with Momo. "I warned the villagers of your plan just in time." He said.

"What?!" Jet snarled.

"At first they didn't believe me, the fire nation soldiers thought I was a spy, but one man vouched for me, the old man you attacked. He urged them to trust me and we got everyone out in time." Sokka said.

"You fool!" Jet yelled.

"Nobody would've been free. Everyone would be dead." Sokka said.

"You traitor." Jet said.

"No jet, you became the traitor when you stopped protecting innocent people." Sokka said.

"Katara, please, help me." Jet said, he was frozen against a tree.

"Good bye Jet." She said. We all got onto Oppa and left to our next destination.


	11. Chapter 11

We were at a canyon, it was a beautiful sight. Sokka was putting up the tent at the moment. I was brushing Oppa's fur. Katara walked over as Sokka crawled out of the tent. "Aren't you forgetting the tarp?" Katara asked.

"Right, got it." Sokka said, he grabbed the role of tarp on the floor and threw it into the tent.

"Sokka, you're supposed to put the tarp on top of the tent, you know, so we don't get rained on." Katara said, in her hands was the firewood she had collected, they were only small thin branches though.

"Ordinarily you'd be right but seeing how it's the dry season you're not." Sokka said with his hands on his hips. He got down and started to nail the tent to the floor "Besides, it works better as a blanket." Sokka said.

"But what if it does rain?" Katara asked.

"What if it doesn't?" Sokka retorted "Then I would have put up the tarp for nothing." He said. Katara started growling a little.

"UGH! You're infuriating!" Katara yelled stamping her foot.

"Katara, why don't you worry about gathering the fire wood because that kindling is looking pretty sorry." Sokka said.

"Well if you don't like my firewood!" She yelled throwing the fire wood at Sokka.

"Fine by me!" Sokka yelled "If you're not gonna do your job then-" he pulled down the tent that had just gone up. Aang had just come back from collecting food.

"Okay, I got the grub if you guys got the-" Aang said, Katara and Sokka folded their arms and turned their backs to each other "Hey, where's the campfire? And what happened to the tent?" he asked.

"Why don't you miss know-it-all, queen of the twigs." Sokka said angrily.

"Oh yeah! Well you're mister-uh-lazy bum! King of the-"she picked up some twigs "Tents!" she threw a twig at Sokka, it bounced off of his head.

"Seriously? Stop beating on Sokka." I said. Aang laughed.

"Okay guys, listen, harsh words won't solve problems…action will, why don't you just witch jobs?" Aang suggested.

"Sounds good." Katara said.

"Whatever." Sokka muttered. Sokka bent down and started picking up the twigs while Katara went to go and put the tent back up.

"See that? Settling feuds and making peace, all in the days work as the avatar." Aang said smugly. I gave Oppa a water melon to eat but Momo was trying to have some as well. Oppa kept one finger on the top and held it in place while Momo tried to snatch it away from him at every angle. Eventually Momo walked away in utter defeat. Oppa let go of it and put it on his tongue, Momo ran back to grab it and ran away with it, Aang took it off of him, threw it in the air and cut it, Oppa got about 2/3 and Momo got 1/3. Oppa ate his lot in one go, Momo hissed angrily that he had gotten less. "Come on Momo, that's fair, Oppa's got five stomachs!" Aang said. I laughed and nodded before handing a peeled orange to Patch and some meat to Sadie. We walked to the edge once we were done and looked at the canyon. "There it is guys, the great divide."

"Wow, I could just stare at it forever."Katara said.

"Okay, I've seen enough." Sokka said, he turned and started to walk away.

"How could you not be fascinated Sokka? This is the largest canyon in the entire world." Katara said.

"Then I'm sure we'll be able to see it very clearly from the air while we fly away." Sokka said. Suddenly a guy stormed past him wearing robes, not one hair was out of place and there wasn't even one spec of dirt on his white robes.

"HEY! If you're looking for the canyon guide, I was here first!" the man shouted.

"Ooooh, canyon guide, sounds informative." Katara said.

"Sounds boring." I groaned.

"Believe me, he's more than a tour guide, he's an earth bender and the only way to get in and out of the canyon is with his help." The guy said. "He's taking my tribe across first!" he growled.

"Calm down, we know you're next." Sokka said.

"You wouldn't be calm If the fire nation destroyed your home and forced you to flee! My whole tribe has to walk thousands of miles to the capital city of Ba Sing Se." The guy complained.

"You a refugee." Katara said.

"Yup, tell me something I don't know." He said.

"You're really annoying?" I shrugged. I looked to where I saw another tribe; these ones were big and dirty and dressed in animal skins. "Is that your tribe?" I asked.

"It most certainly is not! That's the Zhang tribe, a bunch of low life thieves, they've been the enemies of my tribe for a hundred years." He snarled. He whistled to get the other tribe's attention. "Hey Zhangs! I'm saving a spot for my tribe so don't even think of stealing it." He yelled.

"Where are the rest of the Gan Jin?" a woman asked, she was walking at the front of the tribe so I guessed she was the chief. "Still tidying up their camp site?" she asked mockingly.

"Yes, but they sent me ahead of them to hold a spot." The guy said.

"I didn't know the canyon guide took reservations?" the chief said smugly.

"Hah, of course you didn't, that's the ignorance I'd expect from a messy Zhang, so un-organised and ill-prepared for a journey." The robed guy said. The other tribe started yelling and booing in anger. I was about to yell but Aang shushed me and put a finger on my lips.

"You move the finger or you lose the finger." I said angrily.

"Right, sorry." He said before taking his finger away. I heard a rumbling behind me; I looked back and saw a large group of rocks being moved away with earth bending. Behind the rocks was the canyon guide, he had bare feet and dirty green clothes.

"Sorry about the wait youngsters." He smiled patting a layer of dust off of his clothes "Who's ready to cross this here canyon?" he said.

"One of them, I think." Katara said. The robed guy ran forward.

"I was here first!" he yelled "My party is on their way."

"I can't guide people who aren't here." The guide said.

"Guess you guys will have to make the trip tomorrow." The chief scoffed.

"Wait, here they come now!" the guy said. Around the corner were many of people walking in a neat group with neat robes and neat hair and emotionless faces.

"You're not seriously going to cave in to these spoiled Gan Jins?" the chief of the Zhangs said to the guide "I mean we're refuges too! And we've got sick people that need shelter."

"I-uh-well." The guide stuttered.

"We've got old people who are weary from travelling." The guy said.

"Sick people get priority over old people." The chief of the Zhangs said.

"Maybe you Zhangs wouldn't have so many sick people if you weren't such slobs." The chief of the Gan Jins said.

"If you Gan Jins weren't so clean maybe you wouldn't live to be so old." The Zhang chief retorted.

"SHUT IT!" I yelled loudly and very angrily, they all stopped and looked towards me, "This is Aang, he is the avatar and I bet he can come up with a solution that will make everybody happy." I said.

"Uh, you could share the earth bender and travel together?" Aang suggested.

"Absolutely not, we'd rather be taken by the fire nation than travel with those stinking thieves." The Gan Jin chief said.

"Yeah, well we're in a hurry and we're being hunted by the banished prince so can we please move this along." I said, the tribes took no notice of what I said.

"We don't want to travel with you anyway." The Zhang chief said. The two tribes kept feuding.

"Alright, here's the deal!" Aang yelled "You're all going down together and Oppa here will fly your sick and elderly across! Does that seem fair?!" The tribe chiefs' nodded. I helped prepare food for the few people going across on Oppa, Sadie was also going on Oppa, I didn't think it was safe for her to come down with us. "Sorry Oppa, Sadie's with you so don't worry." Aang said stroking Oppa.

"Aang, this feuding tribe stuff is serious business, are you sure it's a good idea getting involved in this?" Sokka asked.

"To tell the truth, I'm not sure." Aang answered "But when have I ever been?" he gasped.

"He's the avatar Sokka, making peace between people is his job." Katara said confidently.

"His job's gonna make us go across the whole canyon on foot isn't it?" Sokka asked glumly. I laughed and nodded.

"Okay, now comes the bad news." The guide said, coming out of his hut "No food allowed in the canyon, it attracts dangerous predators." He said creepily. Patch cowered down behind my neck, he was sitting on my shoulders. I tickled his ears and smiled reassuringly. Both the tribes objected immediately. "Awwww, you babies can go a day without food? Would you rather be hungry or dead?" he asked cheerily. I giggled and peeled one more orange, we left the rest of the food under the guard of Sadie, which I now realised, was a very bad idea. I gave half of the orange to Patch, he downed it happily. "Heading down in ten minutes! All food better be in your gut or in the garbage!" the guide yelled. I ate the rest of the orange and was actually full from the meal that Aang had brought us earlier. I looked at the tribes, the Zhang were gulping down meat hungrily and the Gan Jin were eating calmly with chop sticks and napkins. I was chucked a leg of meat from the Zhang; I nodded my thanks and gulped down a big mouthful.

"Do you have no manners?!" the chief of the Gan Jin asked me, sounding more than a little disgusted.

"Oh I'm sorry Sir Lord King of Everything!" I retorted angrily. I walked over to Aang and waited for the tribes to finish.

"Oppa's going to take care of you until you get there." Aang said to the sick and elderly on Oppa's saddle.

"And Sadie will keep you warm, you have more than enough food there, share it." I warned. I hugged Sadie's neck and laughed as she licked my face and Patch, Patch crawled to the end of my arm and licked Sadie's nose before scuttling back up to my shoulder where he wrapped around my neck like a scarf. We hopped down and hugged Oppa next.

"See you on the other side buddy." Aang said.

"Make sure Sadie doesn't eat all the food." I laughed.

"Yip yip." Aang said, Oppa took off and left. After the ten minutes was up we left down the path. We were walking for a while before the guide stopped us. The path had broken and it was too far for us to jump over. The guide used earth bending to make a new path. "Nice bending." Aang complimented.

"Yeah, I wish I was that good at water bending." I said.

"The job's much more than bending kids, the folks want information." The guide informed us "Many of you are probably wondering how canyons are formed, experts tell us this canyon was most likely carved into the ground by earth spirits, who were angry at local farmers for not offering them a proper sacrifice." The guide explained. I really wanted to meet an earth spirit, they sounded almost as stubborn as Sokka…almost. I heard a rumbling overhead, I looked up and gasped, there were boulders and rocks falling down, they were about to hit us, we all flinched, the guide used earth bending and redirected the rocks over us. The rocks passed and I sighed, that was scary. He laughed "HAHA! I guess the spirits are still angry, I hope all you guys brought sacrifices." He carried on walking on happily. I frowned and walked after him. When we were down the path the guide said "Okay, everyone stand clear of the wall." He used earth bending and picked up a large rock, he threw it at the path he had made earlier, making it impossible for anyone to get in after us. The result was a large cloud of smoke around us.

"Why'd you do that?" I asked in confusion.

"The people are fleeing the fire nation aren't they, gotta make sure we can't be followed." The guide said "We'll be safe now anyway." Suddenly a long arm came out of the cloud of dust and grabbed the guide. I pulled out my knife to attack whatever had grabbed him. Aang whipped away the wind so that we could see. A giant spider like creature had grabbed the guide, I knew it as a canyon crawler, they attacked anything and ate everything, so _that's _why we weren't allowed to bring food. It held him in its mouth and swung him around.

"We gotta help him!" Sokka yelled, he had pulled out his boomerang. He threw his boomerang and hit the canyon crawler in the side of its head. The guide went flying and hit a rock before sliding to the ground. The canyon crawler ran at Sokka in anger, I managed to get there first. I sliced my knife but it did nothing against its hard shell skin but I did manage to keep it back. Aang finally blew it back before spinning it around with a mini tornado and throwing it away, it clung onto the side of a wall and scurried back into a hole.

"What was that?!" Aang asked.

"That was a canyon crawler." I said.

"Come over here Hotaru!" Katara said. I ran over to the guide.

"You had a broken arm, how should we treat this?" Katara asked.

"Make sure something hard is tied against it if the bone is broken, or, make sure its in a sling and kept there. I'm not sure about the leg." I said.

"Okay, thank you." Katara said. I nodded and smiled.

"There's sure to be more." The guide said.

"Your arms and one of your legs are broken." I said "The other leg is just heavily bruised."

"Without my arms I got no bending, in other words-"the guide couldn't finish.

"We're stuck in this canyon." Aang said worriedly. Katara and I started bandaging the guide.

"I thought we were ditching our food so we didn't have to deal with things like canyon crawlers." Sokka said.

"It's the Zhangs, they brought food down here! They did it even after the guide told them not to." The chief of the Gan Jins said.

"WHAT?! If there's anyone who can't go without food for a day then it's you pampered Gan Jins!" the chief of the Zhangs said.

"I hope you're happy, we're stuck in this canyon with no way out." The Gan Jin Chief said.

"Just thank yourselves food hider." The Zhang Chief said.

"Look, sticking together is the only way to-" Aang started.

"I'm not walking another step with the likes of him!" the Zhang chief said pointing at the Gan Jin chief.

"Well there's something we can agree on." The Gan Jin chief said folding his arms.

"Any ideas?" Aang asked.

"No bending, we need to get out of this canyon, I won't die down here, I won't become part of the food chain!" the guide said crazily.

"SEE! We're going to become part of the food chain because of you!" the Gan Jin chief yelled at the Zhang chief.

"Sure, unjustly blame the Zhangs like you always do!" the Zhang chief yelled.

"Gladly." The Gan Jin chief said prissily.

"ENOUGH!" Aang yelled, he blew gusts of wind in their direction so that they would shut up "I thought I could help you guys get along but I guess that's not gonna happen!" He jumped up onto a ledge that separated a path into two separate paths. "We are going to split up, Gan Jins on this side and Zhangs on this side! We travel in two separate lines!" the two chiefs looked at each other and nodded. They took their tribes separately down each path. Aang hopped back down. "Sokka, you go with the Zhangs, and Katara, you go with the Gan Jins, see if you can find out why they hate each other so much." Aang said. They nodded and went their separate ways. "Hotaru, you and the guide come with me." He said. I smiled and nodded. We walked to an open valley where we decided to set up for the night, Gan Jins were on one side and the Zhangs were on the other. Aang and I sat down, I set up our tent, we had a spare tarp so I was going to use one overhead and one in the tent. We didn't have anything to burn so we had no fire and no warmth. We leant over and looked longingly at the other camp fires. Patch was so lucky, he had really thick fur. "Sure would be nice to be around one of those camp fires." Aang said. I would have made a flame so that we could be warm but the guide was with us and he would expose me as a fire bender.

"Yeah, telling stories and laughing." I said sadly. Momo purred glumly.

"It's alright Momo, we'll be outta here soon enough, and then we can eat our weight in leachy nuts." Aang said.

"Don't talk about food right now." I groaned, silencing my rumbling stomach. Momo caught a bug in midair and started to eat it, I looked at him sadly, I was so hungry, he held out his hand with the splattered bug on it. "No no, it's alright, you can have it." I said. He held it out to Aang.

"Nah, I think I'll wait for the leachy nuts." Aang said. I laughed and nodded.

"Lonely, isn't it, being impartial." The guide said, dragged his bad leg behind him.

"I wish I could help these people get along, but it just seems impossible, anyhow, I guess our biggest problem is getting outta here." Aang said. I helped the guide sit down properly.

"I'm not so sure the two problems are unrelated." The guide said. I went inside the tent with Aang ( the guide wanted to be outside, on watch) and tried to get to sleep. After a while I sighed.

"Aang, are you still awake?" I asked.

"Yeah." He answered. I peaked my head outside, the guide was asleep, figures.

"I've been meaning to ask you, when you were still living with your family, I know you didn't really like them, did you have any friends?" Aang asked.

"Yes, Zuko, Azula and I had two main friends, one was called Mai, she was Azula and Zuko's friend, and then there's Ty Lee. We were really good friends, she is really happy and didn't like her family, and trust me, if you think I'm good at fighting you should see her, did you know we created a new type of fighting called chi blocking. You can jab at the nerve endings of people and make their arms go numb; it also temporarily takes away your bending. Ty Lee is my best friend." I said, smiling "That was the only good thing about my life at home, the rest of the time I wished I was dead." I added sadly.

"The other day with Jet, you were scary when you were talking to him." Aang said "But hey, you were right."

"Yeah, I guess so, call it a fire bender's instincts." I laughed. With that we both went to sleep. The next morning Aang and I woke up and got the other tribes up. We carried on walking for the whole morning.

"We're almost at the other side." The guide said. Aang and I climbed down the rocks and saw Katara and Sokka, they looked angry?

"Katara, Sokka, will these people cooperate enough to get out of the canyon?" Aang asked them.

"I don't think so Aang, the Zhangs really wronged the Gan Jins, they ambushed Jin Wei and stole the sacred orb." Katara said angrily.

"What are you talking about?" Aang asked.

"Yeah Katara, what are you talking about? Wei Jin didn't ambush Jin Wei and steal the orb; he was returning it to their village gate and was wrongly punished." Sokka said.

"Huh?" I asked.

"Not punished enough if you ask me." Katara said angrily.

"Okay okay I get it! Now I need your help, let's get everyone together at the base of the canyon wall." Aang said. He flew off with his glider. I jumped down the rocks and ran to where Aang said. "Please everyone, as soon as we get out of here we can eat and then go our separate ways." Aang said "But I need you all to put your heads together and figure out how to climb this cliff."

"Maybe the Zhangs can climb it with their long disgusting finger nails." The Gan Jin chief said.

"Oh sorry, I forgot that to the Gan Jin an unclipped fingernail is a crime punishable by twenty years in jail." The Zhang chief said.

"You dirty thief."

"You pompous fool!" The tribes started yelling at each other but this time Katara was yelling at the Zhangs and Sokka was yelling at the Gan Jins.

"FOCUS! How many times do I have to say it?! Harsh words won't solve problems, action will!" Aang yelled.

"Perhaps the avatar is right." The chief of the Zhangs said.

"Yes, perhaps he is." The Gan Jin chief said. Aang smiled brightly.

"Harsh words will never solve our problems."

"ACTION WILL!" Both of the tribe chiefs pulled out their weapons, the Gan Jin chief with an elegant jian, this sword was named the gentlemen of weapons. The Zhang chief unsheathed her blade; it was a scruffy curved sword. I watched with no emotion apart from boredom at their fight. Soon after the fight started both opponents knocked into each other, they each dropped lots of food. I gasped and tuned out, man was I hungry. I came out of my trance when I was wacked to the side by something, it was a canyon crawler. I pulled out my knife and attacked many of them. After a few minutes of pointless battle I heard Aang yell "Watch and copy me!" Aang said. He grabbed some food and tempted a canyon crawler over before shoving an empty food sack onto its mouth. We all did the same thing, most of us in pairs; I helped others and then got my own canyon crawler. Aang grabbed a sack of food and hung it on the end of his staff, he used it to coax the canyon crawlers up the wall, with us riding their backs using the bags on their mouths. When we got to the top we all jumped off, Aang threw the bag of food back down into the canyon, all the crawlers scuttled after it. I smiled and made sure that everyone else was alright, when I came back to my senses I saw the Gan Jin chief with a sword to the other chief.

"You thieves stole our sacred orb from Jin Wei." The Gan Jin chief said.

"You tyrants unjustly imprisoned Wei Jin for twenty long years." The Zhang chief said. I face palmed and groaned.

"Wait a second, Jin Wei, Wei Jin…I know those guys!" Aang exclaimed.

"Yes yes, we're all aware of the story." The chief of the Gan Jin said.

"No no, I mean I really knew them, I might not look it but I'm 112 years old, I was there 100 years ago on the day you're talking about…There seems to be a lot of confusion about what happened, first of all, these two weren't enemies, they were brothers, twins in fact, and they were eight and most importantly they were just playing a game! The sacred orb was the ball and the two gates were the goals, Jin Wei had the ball and was running towards the goal when he tripped and fell over and dropped the ball, Wei Jin didn't steal the ball, he picked it up and started running it back towards the other goal, but he stepped out of bounds so the official put him in the penalty box. But not for twenty long years, it was for two short minutes, there was no stealing and no putting anyone in prison…just a game." Aang explained.

"So you're saying that the sacred orb was actually just a sacred ball?" the Zhang chief asked.

"Just a regular ball." Aang answered.

"What about our tribe's redemption ritual?" The first Gan Jin we met said.

"That's what the game was called, redemption, as soon as someone got the ball from one gate to the other, everyone would yell 'REDEMPTION!'" Aang said "Don't get me wrong, Wei Jin was kind of a slob and Jin Wei was a little prissy, that much is true, but they respected each other's differences enough to share the same playing field." Aang said.

"I suppose it's time to forget the past." The Zhang chief said. The Gan Jin chief bowed to her.

"And look to the future." He said. She bowed back to him. We were reunited with Oppa and Sadie soon after, she hadn't eaten all of our food; I stuffed my face with that.

"That's some luck you knew Wei Jin and Jin Wei." Sokka said.

"You could call it luck…or you could call it lying." Aang smirked evilly.

"WHAT?!" We all yelled.

"I made the whole thing up." Aang said.

"You did not!" Katara said "That is so wrong." She said. I laughed and agreed.


	12. Chapter 12

We were camping on a beach near a town this time. Aang had been having a lot of nightmares, I didn't know why but he wouldn't talk about it to any of us, not even Momo. We had all gone to sleep late that night. I felt something on my stomach, I sat up and yawned, I saw it was Momo that ran across my sleeping bag, then Katara's, and then Sokka's, he sat up with his boomerang and knife and said sleepily "Wh-what's going on? Did we get captured again?"

"O-oh, it's nothing, I just had a bad dream, go back to sleep." Aang said. I curled up against Sadie again and closed my eyes.

"Are you alright Aang?" Katara asked.

"I'm okay." He said unconvincingly.

"You seem to be having a lot of nightmares lately; you wanna talk to us about them?" Katara asked.

"I think I just need some rest."Aang said.

"You guys wanna here about my dream?!" Sokka asked, wide awake.

"NO!" I hissed, I grabbed a rock and threw it at him before going back to sleep again.

"That's okay, I didn't wanna talk about it anyway." Sokka mumbled, he led back down.

In the morning we got all of our things ready to leave.

"Look at those clear skies!" Aang said happily. My gut didn't have a good feeling about that, but my gut was hungry so oh well. "Should be some smooth flying." Aang said.

"Well, we better smoothly fly ourselves to a market cuz we're out of food." Katara said, she walked up Oppa's tail to the saddle.

"Guys wait, this was in my dream, we shouldn't go to the market." Sokka said.

"What happened in your dream?" I asked.

"Food eats people!" he said creepily. I rolled my eyes and climbed up to Oppa's saddle. "Also, Momo could talk." Sokka said, pointing accusingly at Momo. Momo frowned and made the chirping noise he normally does. "You said some very unkind things." Sokka said while folding his arms angrily. We flew to a coastal town where we walked around the stalls. We found a fruit and veg stall. Katara had been observing a watermelon for more than twenty minutes; Sokka was getting a basket of apples.

"Ahhhhh, it's good, it's perfect, I'm telling you!" the short lady behind the stall complained at Katara. Katara shook the watermelon; I heard the juices inside it sloshing around.

"I don't know if I like the sound of that swishing." Katara said.

"Swishing means it's ripe!" the woman said, she came around the stall and to Katara "It's the ripe juices swishing around, huh!" she said enthusiastically. I rolled my eyes and continued to pat Sadie's head.

"I think it's true Katara, swishing means it's ripe." Aang encouraged.

"I just realised we're out of money anyway." Katara said. She smiled apologetically and put the watermelon back. The stall woman groaned before grabbing the basket of apples off of Sokka and then kicking him as he walked away. We walked down to the docks, Sokka was rubbing his butt where the woman kicked him.

"Out of food and out of money, now what are we supposed to do?!" Sokka whined.

"You could get a job smart guy." Katara said. I saw an old man and woman behind Katara.

"We shouldn't go out there, please, the fish can wait, there's going to be a terrible storm!" the old woman pleaded. I saw Aang go tense.

"Ahhhhh, you're crazy, it's a nice day, no clouds, no wind, no nothing so quit yer nagging woman!" the old man said, I already didn't like him.

"Maybe we should find some shelter?" Aang said worriedly.

"Are you kidding? Shelter from what?" Sokka asked.

"My joints say there's going to be a storm! A bad one." The old woman said.

"Well it's your joints against my brain." The old man retorted.

"Well I hope your brain can find someone else to haul all that fish cuz I ain't comin'." The old woman said.

"FINE! I'll find a new fish hauler and pay him double what you get, how'd you like that?!" the old man yelled. Sokka ran over to the old man.

"I'll go!" he chirped.

"You're hired!" the old man said, he looked at the old woman triumphantly. We all looked at Sokka with concern.

"What? You said get a job and he's paying_double_!" Sokka said.

"Double?! Who told you that nonsense?" the old man said. Sokka started to load things onto the ship.

"Maybe this isn't such a good idea." Aang said to Sokka.

"Aang's right, look at the sky." I said, Aang and I looked up, gray clouds were rolling in, ready to drench us.

"I said I was going to do this job, I can't back out just because of some bad weather." Sokka said.

"The boy with the tattoos has some sense!" the old woman said "You should listen to him!" she then walked away.

"Boy with tattoos?" the old man said, puzzled, he turned around and walked to Aang while saying "They're air bender tattoos, well I'll be a hog monkey's uncle, you're the avatar ain't ya?!"

"That's right." Katara said proudly. Aang smiled shyly.

"Well don't be so smiley about it! The avatar disappeared for a hundred years! You turned your back on the world!" the old man accused. Aang cowered back in fear.

"Don't you dare yell at him!" I yelled at the old man "Aang would never turn his back on anyone!"

"Ohhh, he wouldn't huh? Then I must have imagined the last hundred years of war and suffering!" the old man said.

"Aang is one of the bravest people I know, he has done nothing but help people and save lives since I met him, it's not his fault he disappeared, right Aang?" Katara said. I looked back, Aang was backing away, he looked destroyed.

"Aang, what's wrong?" I asked. He opened his glider and flew away.

"That's right! Keep flying!" the old man yelled.

"You're a horrible old man!" Katara yelled, she ran over to Oppa and flew after Aang. I used water bending to bring a bubble of water above the old man and drench him. I got onto Sadie and told her to follow Oppa, she ran very fast after Katara and Oppa. Soon after we left it started pouring, I used water bending to keep most of the water off of Sadie and I, Patch was hiding under some of my hair. Oppa and Katara soon went into a cave.

"Go up there." I said to Sadie, she barked in reply and ran up to the cave. When I got in I hugged her neck "Good girl." I said. She led down next to Oppa. I squeezed most of the water out of my clothes before walking up to Aang and Katara. I discovered that Aang was going to tell us about his dreams and about his past. Katara and I ran out and gathered some wood. When we got back Katara piled up the sticks and I set them on fire. Aang told us about his past, he was at an air temple and he got told he was the avatar, but he wasn't meant to be told that until he was at least sixteen. He didn't even want to be the avatar. Things started changing for him like other air benders wouldn't let him play with them because it would be an unfair advantage to the team he was on. He still had fin with his master Gyatso though; he was like Aang's father. Because of Gyatso he was starting to feel better, something worse happened, he was to be separated from Gyatso. He wasn't sent away from the monks though, he ran away. When he ran away he was caught in a storm, he went down and under the water, his avatar state activated and he made the ice around himself and Oppa, the next thing he knew he was with us after waking up.

"You ran away." Katara said.

"Then the fire nation attacked our temple, my people needed me and I wasn't there to help." Aang said.

"You don't know if-" I started.

"The world needed me and I wasn't there to help!" Aang yelled angrily.

"Aang-" Katara tried to comfort.

"The fisherman was right, I did turn my back on the world." Aang said.

"You're being too hard on yourself, even if you did run I think it was meant to happen like that, if you had stayed you would have been killed along with all the other air benders, by running away you kept your race alive." I said.

"You don't know that." Aang said.

"I know it's meant to be this way, the world needs you _now_." I said.

"You give people hope." Katara said.

"Besides, I ran away as well." I said. Aang looked up at us and smiled, we all had a nice family hug. There was lightening outside, we suddenly heard a voice.

"HELP! Oh please help!" the voice said. Katara ran over to the old woman from earlier.

"It's okay, you're safe." Katara said, she brought the woman inside.

"But my husband isn't." The old woman said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Where's Sokka?!" Katara asked.

"They haven't returned, they should have been back by now and this storm is becoming a typhoon, they're caught out at sea!" the woman said. If it was that dangerous then was Zuko okay, no, I couldn't think about that right now, he has tried to kill me more than once, I shouldn't think about that, anyway, if they were going to get struck by lightning then Uncle could handle it.

"I'm going to find them." Aang said.

"I'm going with you." Katara said.

"Don't have all the fun without me!" I laughed.

"I'm staying here!" the old woman said, she sat down and folded her arms stubbornly. I left Sadie with the old woman, Patch refused to leave.

"We'll be back soon, I promise." Aang said. We got Oppa ready and left. We flew low to the water to avoid the worst of the storm.

"Where are they?!" Katara yelled. A giant wave appeared in front of us.

"Come on buddy!" Aang yelled, Oppa tried to get over the wave but it was too big, we were about to head right into it! Aang spun his staff and we went right through the wave. I sighed in relief. We saw the boat. "The boat!" Aang yelled, he pointed in the distance. I also saw another boat, Zuko's boat, but I didn't pester Aang with it. We flew over; Oppa hovered above the ship while Aang jumped down. Sokka tied some rope around his and the old man's waist, Aang grabbed the rope and jumped onto Oppa before pulling the rope, the old man and Sokka up. They smiled and spat out some water, then looked behind them in fear, there was another giant wave behind us. Oppa was taken by the wave; we started sinking through the water. I held on to the saddle and closed my eyes, this was not the death I was expecting. Before I knew it we burst through the surface of the water, Aang was in his avatar state, he had saved us! I looked down and saw Zuko, I met his eyes and turned away, I couldn't. We flew up and through the clouds before going back to the cave we were in before. The old woman hugged the old man in release.

"You owe this boy an apology!" the old woman commanded, pointing at Aang.

"He doesn't have to apologise." Aang said.

"Welllll, what if instead of an apology I give him a free fish and we call it even?" the old man asked.

"Actually, I don't eat meat." Aang said.

"I do!" I yelled, rubbing my stomach. Katara looked at me and raised an eyebrow "Sorry." I said.

"Fish ain't meat anyway." The old man said.

"You're still gonna pay me right?" Sokka said. The old man chucked a fish into Sokka's hand. I grabbed the fish and fed it to Sadie.

"Hey guys! Look at this! The storm's over!" I yelled. We all stood outside and smiled, until Oppa shook all the water off of his fur and onto us.

"Oppaaaa." We all complained in unison.


	13. Chapter 13

We travelled for a few days before we realised that Sokka was getting ill. We stopped in some ruins by a swamp and let Sokka rest. Sokka was coughing a lot and was tucked into his sleeping bag. "This should bring your fever down." Katara said, she put a towel soaked in cold water on his head.

"You know what I love about Oppa the most? His sense of humour." Sokka said.

"That's nice, I'll tell him." Katara said. Oppa roared and Sokka laughed.

"Classic Oppa." Sokka said, I laughed, this was funny stuff!

"How's Sokka doing?" Aang asked.

"Not so good, being out in that storm really did a number on him." Katara said.

"I couldn't find any ginger root for the tea but I found a map." Aang said, he rolled the map flat out on the floor "There's a herbalist institute on a mountain nearby." He informed us "We could probably find a cure for Sokka there."

"Sorry Aang, but Sokka is in no condition to travel." Katara said.

"I think he needs more rest." I added.

"I'm sure he'll be better by tomorrow." Katara said. She then coughed, I frowned, Sokka was coughing like that yesterday and now he was talking to Oppa about watermelons.

"Not you too." Aang said worriedly.

"Relax, it was just a little cough." Katara tried to reassure us "I'm fi-" she started to cough again.

"That's how Sokka started yesterday!" Aang said.

"Now look at him." I said "He thinks he's an earth bender!"Sokka was punching imaginary rocks.

"Take that you rock!" he said.

"A few more hours and you'll be talking nonsense too!" Aang said. He stood up and rolled up the map. "I'm going to find some medicine, Hotaru, you stay here and take care of them."

"But I still need to do my meditating." I said.

"Well do that then." Aang said. He started to leave. I grabbed his staff and passed it to him "Why do I need this?" Aang asked.

"In case you get into trouble." I said.

"I'm not going to get into trouble." Aang said.

"Aang? It's you; you're going to get into trouble." I smirked.

"Fine, I'll take my staff, if I'm not back when you've finished meditating then come and find me." Aang said.

"Agreed." I nodded. He opened his glider and started to fly, but there was lighting so he decided to go by foot. I sat down on the floor and started my meditating. Oppa roared and Momo purred, Sokka laughed.

"HAHA! You guys crack me up." He said. From that moment and on I completely blanked out.

I came to a few hours later, I stood up and stretched, I looked around, there were random things everywhere and even Katara was wearing a crown. I rolled my eyes, this was actually normal for us, Katara and Sokka were asleep. "AANG!" I yelled…no reply. I sighed "I better go looking then." I said to myself. "Stay here." I commanded Sadie, Patch sat on her head. I grabbed my knives and a bottle of water in case I needed water bending. I walked out and down the mountain we were on, through all the trees, it was really dark out. I soon got to the swamp I was walking to; I guessed I should probably start here. I looked around for a while, I found nothing so decided to carry on walking, suddenly my foot hooked around something and I tripped over. I wiped the mud off of my face and looked on the ground, there were arrows. I looked around some more on solid ground where I found Aang's staff! I growled and followed foot prints in the mud, there were also prints like something had been dragged, I was guessing Aang and some sort of net were involved in that.

I soon got to a massive fortress, I looked around, and there were guards everywhere. I was looking around when I felt a hand around my mouth; I was dragged into the shadows. I kicked backwards and spun around to face my captor. They were dressed in a black suit with two dao swords; he was wearing a blue mask. I narrowed my eyes and hissed "I don't care who you are, but I'm getting Aang back, are you going to help me or not?" The mask guy nodded. I saw a cart going into the fortress. I crept over to a bush and hid until the cart came past. I grabbed onto the bottom of the cart with the other guy. I had learnt all of this from my brother and father. We stopped outside the gate when they were checking the carriage, they gave the inside of the carriage the all clear and then I saw a pair of feet come around the bottom. I signalled for the mask guy to move. He nodded and swung around to the top of the carriage. I did the same thing and hid behind some crates in the carriage with him.

"All clear." The guard said, we were now allowed to enter. I let out a breath of relief, there were only two people who were crazy enough to go through all this to get Aang, General Zhao and Zuko, but Zuko didn't have the authority to do this. When we were on and the cart had stopped I looked out, guards were talking to each other but not really paying attention. I hopped out of the cart and ran to one of the towers in one of the corners of one of the five walls that encased one building in the middle of it all. When we climbed the tower and came out top I saw Zhao giving a speech to many soldiers, he was on a balcony coming out of a smaller tower.

"We are the sons and daughters of fire! The superior element, until today only one thing stood in our path of victory, the avatar!" Zhao announced, while he was doing this the mask guy and I snuck around the top of the wall silently. "I am here to tell you that he is now my prisoner!" Zhao announced, I snarled slightly, that smug general. The soldiers on the ground below him cheered and hollered triumphantly. "This is the year Sozin's comet returns to grant us its power!" Zhao yelled, more cheering. "This is the year the fire nation breaks through the walls of Ba Sing Se and burns the city to the ground!" We got to a spot where we were unseen by soldiers and Zhao and any guards. The mask guy pulled out a rope and put it down the wall. He gestured for me to go down. I grabbed the end and slid down the rope. We ran down into the bottom of the tower, it was a bit like a sewage system, water rose to my knees as we went through, as soon as we got down there were bars in the tunnel. Both the blue mask guy and I were able to slip through easily. We travelled up the tower, knocking out guards as we went along, you know what they say, silent but deadly. At one turn I grabbed a guard's helmet, the mask guy cocked his head in confusion. I put my finger up as if to say 'wait a minute.' I went to the corner and without looking round I chucked the helmet down the corridor.

"Huh?" I heard someone say, I then heard footsteps come towards us. The mask guy grabbed the fire bender and wrapped his own wrist cloth around his mouth, gagging him, the mask guy grabbed some chains and wrapped it around the fire benders wrists and hung him up. We both heard more footsteps approaching. The mask guy jumped up to the ceiling and stayed there, he grabbed my hand and pulled me up. Two more fire benders came around the corner. The mask guy jumped one and I handled the other. I grinned at the fire bender, he blasted fire at me, I blocked it out and jabbed at certain points along his body, he fell to the ground, limp and useless, _that _was chi blocking. We walked around the corner; the one fire bender left grabbed a horn and prepared to blow so that he could warn others. I grabbed my knife and threw it; I learnt knife throwing from my friend Mai. It speared the horn to the wall. The fire bender blasted fire, I water bended a stream out of my bottle and blocked it out, I kicked the bender round the head, hard, he fell to the floor unconscious. The mask guy cocked his head in confusion one more time "I'm a water bender okay!" I whispered angrily. He nodded and pointed to me then the floor, as if to say 'wait here'. I nodded impatiently and waited there; I pulled my knife out of the wall and horn and put it into its sheath. After a moment the door opened again. The mask guy walked out and soon after so did Aang. "I told you." I grinned.

"Hotaru! Wait, who's that guy?" Aang asked, he pointed to blue mask guy.

"He's helping us, but I don't know him, be careful." I said. We started to walk away when I heard Aang say "My frogs!" I frowned and looked around; he was trying to catch some half frozen frogs. I rolled my eyes and folded my arms in annoyance. The mask guy walked over and grabbed the scruff of Aang's cloak before dragging him. "WAIT! My friends need to suck on those frogs!" Aang whined. I rolled my eyes again.

"We can get some more frogs for them after." I said, he nodded sadly. We walked under grates in the ground so that we were hidden from guards and soldiers. When we got to a grate where it seemed quiet the blue masked guy poked his head up between the bars and looked around. He pointed upwards, gesturing for us to go up with him. Aang jumped up and I grabbed the grate and hauled myself up. We ran secretly between the soldiers and behind them. We ran to the rope we used before, we got about half way up we heard loud bells ring. I bit my lip, crap.

"There on the wall!" A guard shouted. A guard from above us cut the rope and we fell to the ground. Aang cushioned our fall with air bending. The blue mask drew his swords. Zhao appeared on the balcony once again.

"The avatar has escaped! Close all the gates immediately!" Zhao yelled, double crap.

"Stay close to me." Aang said, we nodded. A line of soldiers appeared in front of the gate we were running to. Aang blew them aside and opened a way to the gate. Aang and I were about to run through when we saw that the mask guy was caught in a fight between many. Someone tried to stab Aang with a spear, he grabbed it and blew the owner away, he snapped the point off the end and used it as a staff. We ran to go and help the blue mask guy, the gates closed behind us…triple crap. I took out many of the soldiers while Aang blew his away. Aang blew us onto the wall with air bending. The blue mask guy and I both came to a rolling stop. Large groups of soldiers appeared on each side of us, we were about to stop fighting when Aang came, he spun his temporary staff around and was now flying, he grabbed onto both the mask guy and I and flew, Aang was having a lot of trouble with this and to add to it, there were people throwing spears at us from the ground. The blue mask guy and I kicked and chopped the spears away with our blades and feet. We fell on top of another wall. Two guards climbed up the watch tower and ran to us. Aang circled one of them for ages, I rolled my eyes and walked over to them, with no emotion I kicked the soldier off; Aang looked at me in surprise.

"That stuff was taking too long." I shrugged. We attacked the few soldiers that came at us from the side. I looked over the wall, soldiers and guards were bringing ladders to climb up to us. The blue mask guy was hitting and kicking them off the top of the ladder and Aang was blowing air down the ladders to keep people off. I was also kicking guys off of the ladder.

"Grab this and hop on my back!" Aang yelled. I held a ladder along my arms; the blue mask guy was on my back and also had a ladder. Aang used one to walk on and then dropped it because it wasn't tied to him; I saw what I needed to do. I passed down the ladder to him and he used that, and then dropped it. "Give me the next one!" Aang yelled. The blue mask guy passed the ladder down, I helped steady it so that Aang could use it.

"Best stilts ever!" I yelled. Suddenly one of the ladders underneath us was set on fire. Aang jumped off of the stilt when the fire got to the top. He had his fingers hooked over the edge of the wall. He slipped, the blue mask guy grabbed the edge of the wall but he slipped as well. We fell to the ground with a loud 'thud!' I stood up straight away and got ready to fight. The fire benders shot flames at us, Aang spun the blue mask guy and I around so we were away from the flames, he then used air bending as a shield to defend us.

"Hold your fire!" I heard Zhao yell. The fire stopped and I looked around, I snarled at Zhao and kicked some fire at him, he blocked it easily. I used something that he wouldn't be expecting; I uncorked my bottle and sent ice shards at him. "Stop." Zhao said. Something in his voice sent terror through me. He held out some parchment "I have a letter from you father young princess." He said. He chucked me some paper, I caught it and shoved it in my pocket. "Aren't you gonna read it?" Zhao asked.

"Not until we're outta here." I growled.

"The avatar must be captured alive!" Zhao yelled to his soldiers and guards "And the princess!" Suddenly I felt a stinging in my neck. I looked down, I shifted my eyes to the side and gasped, blue mask guy had his swords pressed up against our necks, drawing blood. "Open the gate." Zhao said angrily.

"Admiral, what are you doing?" a guard asked.

"Let them out, now!" Zhao said. The large gates behind us slid open. We shuffled backwards and out of the fortress.

"How could you let them go?" the guard asked.

"A situation like this requires precision." Zhao smirked. We walked out of the fortress and into open ground; we needed to keep our guard up. Suddenly just as we were getting close to cover an arrow was shot, it hit the blue mask guy in the forehead, knocking him out but not killing him. I would have been able to dodge and so would Aang and the blue mask guy but if any of us moved then Aang and I would have been decapitated. The blue mask guy fell to the ground. Aang used air bending and made a wall of smoke in front of us. Aang bent down to the blue mask guy and untied his mask. When I saw who it was I kicked the ground and snarled, it was Zuko! Aang gasped and stumbled backwards.  
>"What do we do?" Aang asked, I looked at my brother.<p>

"Run, leave him to Zhao." I said. Aang nodded, we started to run. Aang looked back at Zuko; I could see he was having a mental battle with himself. Aang grabbed Zuko and ran away with me in tow. We led Zuko down by a tree and waited for him to wake up, to make sure he was okay, those were Aang's decisions, he chose them even against me. Aang was talking to himself.

"You know what being born a hundred years ago is? I miss all the friends I used to hang out with, before the war started I used to always visit my friend Kuzon, the two of us, we got in and out of so much trouble together, he was one of the best friends I ever had, and he was from the fire nation." Aang said, he saw Zuko was awake "I know not all fire nation are evil," Aang gestured to me "If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends too?" Suddenly Zuko sat up quickly and blasted fire at Aang. I water bended out of my bottle and froze his wrists and legs to the ground. Aang grabbed me and jumped from tree to tree away from Zuko. We went straight back to the swamp and collected some frozen frogs. The herbalist had said that sucking on frozen, they had to be frozen, frogs would cure Katara and Sokka. We walked calmly back to where we were camping after we had found Aang's staff and walked back to where we were camping. We gave the frogs to Katara and Sokka, who were both in their sleeping bags; they sucked on the frogs until they thawed out and hopped away. They seemed to be cured and disgusted straight away. Aang and I fell over from exhaustion.

"How was your trip?" Sokka asked "Did you make any new friends?"

"No, I don't think I did." Aang said sadly. He then gasped and asked "Wait, Hotaru, Zhao gave you that paper, what does it say?" I opened the paper and read it. I gasped and frowned. The paper said:

_Hotaru, I know you have now found your abilities to consult with the spirits. Your mother and I have been keeping the truth from you. When you were a baby you were originally going to be chosen as the avatar, but, because of the cycle an air bender was chosen, this means that you are half avatar, the spirit belongs to someone else but the bending belongs to you. I expect you to come home immediately with the avatar and learn to bend. Now is the time, you will choose your nation and your family or that water tribe and air bender scum._

_Signed, Fire Lord Ozai._

"What does it say?" Aang asked, I handed it to him. In my eyes was pure rage. I sent some very powerful fire blasts into the sky to cool off. "Hotaru?" Aang said.

"What?!" I yelled.

"You're smoking." He said. I looked down, oops, my temperature had risen. I calmed myself down.

"How dare he ask me to choose between them and you, that mother-" I started.

"Language." Aang said.

"Sorry." I answered. I made my decision straight away, there was nothing to think about, my nation and family or my friends, I choose…friends, they are my family and I was happy with them.


	14. Chapter 14

We travelled to a nearby town; it took a few days to get there. We were camping in the forest out back; we were by a small pool and small patch of sand. We had one tent up and the campfire had just gone out, it was morning though. We were sitting down doing our own thing when a fish jumped out of the water. "Look!" Katara said. The fish jumped in and out of the water.

"He's taunting us." Sokka said.

"Let's eat him!" I yelled.

"Yeah! You are so gonna be dinner!" Sokka said. Sokka grabbed fishing rod and was about to fish when he said "Hey, where's the fishing line?"

"Oh, I didn't think you would need it Sokka." Aang said, he held up a necklace with a flower in the middle.

"Damnit! It's all tangled!" Sokka complained.

"Not tangled, woven, I made you a necklace Katara. I thought since you lost your other one." He held it up in front of him and smiled. Katara smiled and received the necklace.

"Thanks Aang, I love it." She said.

"Great Aang, maybe instead of saving the world you can go into the jewellery making business?" Sokka said.

"I don't see why I can't do both?" Aang shrugged. I giggled and walked into the water.

"What are you doing?" Sokka asked.

"We will eat that fish." I said confidently. Sokka grabbed his spear and tried throwing it but he missed. I grabbed my knife and tried stabbing the fish but it still didn't work. I sighed angrily. Sokka ran in after me with his boomerang.

"Stop taunting us!" Sokka yelled at the fish. I dove at the fish but went straight into the water and didn't even touch it.

"So, how do I look?" Katara asked Aang. He turned around and gasped, he had a serious crush that was seriously notable to everyone except Katara.

"You mean, just your neck or all of you because-uh-both look great." Aang said. I put my hands on my hips.

"Ooooh, smoochey smoochey." I mocked.

"Someone's in loooove." Sokka mocked after me. The fish that he had grabbed jumped out of his hands and wacked him in the face, he fell back into the water. I laughed and fell into the water because of it.l

"I-welllll." Aang said embarrassingly.

"You two, stop teasing." Katara said "Aang's just a good friend, a sweet little guy." She laughed rubbing Aang's head. I laughed….friend zoned…I thought to myself. "Just like Momo." She said, rubbing Momo's head. Sokka and I walked out of the water in defeat. I made the 'I got my eyes on you' sign to the fish and folded my arms angrily. I suddenly heard a growl. Aang jumped onto a rock.

"Someone's being attacked by a platypus bear!" Aang said. I looked around the rock and saw an old man smiling and dodging every single attack the platypus bear threw at him. We ran to the man.

"Well hello there." The man smiled, he dodged another swipe of the bear claw "Nice day, isn't it?"

"Make noise, it'll run off!" Aang said.

"No, play dead, he'll lose interest!" Sokka said.

"Run down hill, then climb a tree!" Katara yelled.

"I say kick it in the gut!" I yelled.

"Punch it in the beak!" Sokka yelled.

"Then run in zig zags!" Aang yelled. The old man continued to do nothing.

"Or die, that works too." I shrugged. The others looked at me with blank expressions "What?" I asked. Aang rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"No need, it's going to be fine." The man said. The platypus bear roared and stood on its hind legs. After a few more minutes of nothing Oppa and Sadie walked up to the platypus bear and roared, the platypus laid an egg in fear and swam back down the river. Sokka picked up the egg.

"Mmmm, lunch." Sokka said, he sniffed the egg "Lucky for you we came along." Sokka said.

"Thanks, but everything was already under control, not to worry." The old man said "Aunt wu predicted I'd have a safe journey."

"Aunt who?" I asked.

"Noooo, aunt wu." The old man said "She's the fortune teller from my village, awful nice knowing your future."

"Wow, it must be." Katara said.

"No!" I yelled "What if you get your death predicted?" I asked. Katara rolled her eyes, I folded my arms and looked away angrily.

"That explains why you were so calm." Katara said.

"But the fortune teller was wrong, you didn't have a safe journey, you were almost killed!" Sokka said.

"But I wasn't." the old man smiled "Alright, have a good one." He started to walk away "Oh, and aunt wu said if I met any travellers to give them this." He handed a long wrapped object to Aang.

"Maybe we should go and see aunt wu?" Katara suggested. I looked at Aang; he was tearing apart the wrapping paper savagely. "We should go and learn our fortunes, it could be fun!" Katara said.

"Yeah, _could!"_ I said sarcastically.

"Oh come on, fortune telling is nonsense." Sokka said.

"It gives me the creeps." I shivered. Aang opened the gift up, it was an umbrella.

"Hey, watcha know, it's an umbrella." Aang said, he held the umbrella above him. It suddenly started to rain, with thunder! I made a shield of water over my head and walked under the umbrella with Katara and Aang.

"That proves it!" Katara sung.

"No it doesn't, you can't _really_ tell the future." Sokka said, he was holding the egg above his head. I just realised that Patch was out in the rain, he hated rain. I whistled and he ran up my arm, he was dripping, he shook himself off and all his fur stuck out, he looked like a big blob of fur.

"I guess you're not _really _getting wet then." Katara smirked, I laughed. Suddenly Sokka lost his grip on the egg, it flew up, he tried to catch it, emphasis on the _tried_, it fell down, it splatted on his head. I laughed even harder. We carried on walking.

"Of course she predicted it was gonna rain; the sky's been gray all day." Sokka said. Sokka was walking outside the umbrella.

"Just admit you might be wrong and then you can come under the umbrella." Katara said.

"Look, I'm going to predict the future now," Sokka said, he then said in a silly voice "It's going to keep drizzling!"He folded his arms "See?" he said. Suddenly it stopped raining and the sun came out

"Not everyone has the gift Sokka." Aang said. Oppa shook off his wet fur along with Sadie all over Sokka. We got to the village where aunt wu lives. It was a medium sized earth kingdom village at the base of a massive volcano. We walked to aunt wu's house. Outside the door was a man with white hair.

"Aunt Wu has been expecting you." The man said. I rolled my eyes, whatever.

"Really?" Katara asked like she was surprised.

"Pfff." Sokka retorted. A ten year old girl in a pink robe walked out.

"My name is Meng." She said "And I am aunt wu's assistant." She carried on. I saw her eyes skim Aang; she obviously had a crush on him. "Well heloooo there." She said. He rubbed his nose.

"Hello." Aang said.

"Can I get you some tea or some of aunt wu's special bean curd puffs?" Meng asked.

"I'll try a curd puff!" Sokka said.

"Just a second." Meng said, I laughed at Sokka, he looked destroyed. She bent down closer to Aang's eye level, we were all now sitting on the floor apart from Meng. "So what's your name?" Meng asked Aang.

"Aang." He answered with no interest.

"Whoa, that rhymes with Meng!" she said "And you've got some pretty big ears don't ya?"

"Yeah, elephants get together and make fun of them." I said.

"I guess?" Aang said, obviously creeped out.

"Don't be modest, they're huge!" Sokka said. I punched his shoulder hard.

"Well Aang, it was very nice to meet you." Meng said. She stood up and started to walk away "Very nice." She added. I giggled.

"What?" Aang asked.

"Oh-huh-nothing." I said.

"I can't believe we're here in the house of nonsense." Sokka said.

"Try to keep an open mind Sokka." Katara said. I gasped as I thought of something "What is it?" Katara asked.

"If she really is like how others say she is then wouldn't she be able to see who I am." I asked "As in, who I really am?"

"I never really thought about that before, there are so many things that are unexplained, it's gotta be nice to have some insight into your future." Katara said.

"Well I don't see what that has to do with my question but sure." I said.

"It would be nice to have some bean curd puffs." Sokka said.

"Yeah, I wonder where they are." I said licking my lips. Meng bought us some snacks, Sokka and I started stuffing our faces straight away.

"Greetings young travellers." I heard an old woman say "Now, who's next?" she asked. Katara looked around. Sokka was busy eating, I shook my head and so did Aang.

"I guess it's me then." Katara said. She stood up and walked away with aunt wu.

"They're not bad." I said, talking about the food.

"Soooo, what do you think they're talking about back there?" Aang asked.

"Boring, girly stuff I guess. Love, who she's gonna marry, how many kids she's gonna have." I said "I'm more interested in if I'll kill my father or not."

"Yeah, dumb stuff like that." Aang said. He stood up and said "Well, I gotta find a bathroom." Sokka led down and carried on eating and so did I. When Aang came back he was grinning from ear to ear.

"Well, looks like someone had a good bathroom break." Sokka said.

"Yeah, when I was in there-" Aang started.

"Okay, we don't need your life story." I said before he could say any more.

"Who's next?" aunt wu asked.

"Okay, let's get this over with." Sokka said, he stood up.

"Your future is full of struggle and anguish, most of it is self-inflicted." Aunt wu said.

"But you didn't even ready my palms or anything!" Sokka complained.

"I didn't need to, it's written all over your face." Aunt wu said. Sokka went into his unimpressed face, I laughed and rolled onto my back. "You then." She said, she pointed at Aang "Come with me." She walked into a room with Aang. Aang walked back out even happier than before, aunt wu brought me into a room out back. She asked "What would you like to learn about?"

"My family and my life span." I asked.

"Not love?" she asked.

"Nope, my family and life span." I said. She nodded and sat down on a carpet. I sat down across from her. She asked me to take off my jacket, I hesitated but nodded. I shrugged it off, showing the scar and all.

"Who did this?" she asked.

"My father and sister." I answered shamefully.

"Is there anything you would like to tell me because by looking at your future I also see all about you." She asked.

"I'd rather you find out by yourself." I said. She nodded. She looked at both my palms and up both my arms.

"None of your family will be harmed, it will be even more broken than it is now." She said. I cradled my knees to my chest. "I've seen who you are." She said.

"Please keep it a secret." I begged.

"You travel with the avatar and you are part of the avatar, you're secret is safe with me." She said kindly. I smiled brightly and nodded.  
>"What about my brother?" I asked.<p>

"You will run into many problems with him but you will be fine." She said.

"How long will I live?" I asked, I wanted to be alive to see the downfall of my father.

"For a _very very _long time." Aunt wu answered. I nodded and left the room. I walked out slightly worried, my family, more broken than before?

"I hope you guy see now that fortune telling is just a big stupid hoax." Sokka said as we left.

"You're just saying that because you're going to make yourself unhappy for the rest of your life." Katara said.

"That woman is crazy! My life will be calm and happy and joyful!" Sokka yelled. He kicked a stone; it hit a sign and bounced off before hitting his head. "That doesn't prove anything!" he stated.

"Well I liked my predictions; certain things are going to turn out very well." Katara said happily.

"They sure are." Aang said.

"Why?" Katara asked "What did she tell you?"

"Some stuff, you'll find out." Aang smirked. We walked to the village centre where it looked like the whole village was gathered.

"What's going on with the sky?" Katara asked.

"We're waiting for aunt wu to come and read the clouds." The old man from earlier said "To predict the fate of the whole village."

"That cloud kind of looks like a fluffy bunny." Aang said.

"You better hope that's not a bunny, the fluffy bunny cloud forecasts doom and destruction." The old man said.

"Do you even hear yourself?" Sokka asked.

"The cloud reading will tell us if mount Mokapu will remain dormant for another year or if it will erupt." A random woman explained to us.

"We use to have a tradition once a year of going up the mountain to check the volcano ourselves, but, ever since aunt wu moved here twenty years ago we have a tradition of not doing that." The old man said.

"I can't believe you would trust your lives to that crazy old superstition." Sokka said.

"Shhhh, she's coming." Katara said. I watched the stage. Aunt wu walked on and bowed. She looked up in the air and then back at her book.

"Bending arrow cloud, good crops this year!" She announced "Nice big harvest. Wavy moon shape cloud, gonna be a great year for twins and a cumulous cloud with a twisted nub coming off the end of it, the village will not be destroyed by the volcano this year!" She announced happily, the whole village cheered. While Aang and Sokka went off in one direction and Katara in another a few boys about my age were playing with a ball. I walked over.

"Can I play?" I asked. The two team captains looked at each other.

"Fine, but she's on your team, there's no way a girl could actually play this." One team captain said. I scoffed and walked over to my team, the rules were explained to me and we started playing. As soon as we started I ran to the ball faster than anyone else and booted it into the goal, I knocked the goalie through the net as well. My team cheered. The other team captain gawped. We carried on playing, I managed to score 12 out of the thirteen goals our team made, the end score was 13-2 to us. I cheered and left them to carry on playing. After a while Aang came over to me.

"Come up the volcano with me and Sokka, I'm going to get a panda lily." He said.

"Sure." I shrugged.

"Just like that?" Sokka asked.

"Yeah, that's a normal thing to ask when it's coming from Aang." I said. We walked up the mountain while Aang was going on and on about the panda lily. When Aang got to the top he picked a flower off of the rim of the volcano. I got up and saw the lava, it was dangerously close to the edge, the volcano was going to erupt.

"Aunt wi was wrong." Aang said worriedly, he dropped the flower into the lava.

"Those people all think they're safe!" Sokka said.

"We have to warn them." I said.

"There's no time to walk, grab on!" Aang grabbed his glider and grabbed Sokka and I before flying down the volcano and to the village. We got to aunt wu's house and saw Katara outside. "Hey Katara." Aang said.

"Can you believe she won't let me in!" Katara complained "And after all the business I've given her!"

"But she doesn't charge." I said, slightly confused.

"I know, but still." Katara said.

"Well we have other things to worry about!" Sokka said "Aunt wu was wrong about the volcano."

"Sokka, you tried to convince me she was wrong before, it's gonna take an awful lot to change that." Katara said. As if on cue the volcano shook and billowed out gray smoke. "Oh no." Katara said. We ran to the village centre.

"Everyone! That volcano is going to blow any second! Aunt Wu was wrong!" Sokka yelled.

"Yeah yeah, we know you don't believe in aunt wu mr. science and reason lover." A villager said.

"If you won't listen to him then maybe you'll listen to me, I wanna believe aunt wu and her predictions as much as you do but my brother, Aang and Hotaru saw the lava with their own eyes!" Katara said.

"Well, I heard aunt wu's prediction with my own ears." The old man said. Aang jumped onto a roof and stood on the edge.

"Please listen to us! You are all in danger and we have to get out of here! You can't rely on aunt wu's prediction; you have to take fate into your own hands!" Aang yelled. The volcano rumbled again.

"Look, can your fortune telling explain that?!" Sokka yelled.

"Can your science explain why it rains?" A villager asked Sokka smugly.

"Yes!" Sokka yelled. I stepped in front of Sokka.

"Frontal rain occurs when two air masses meet. When a warm air mass meets a cold air mass, they don't mix as they have different densities (a bit like oil and water). Instead, the warm less dense air is pushed up over the cold dense air creating the 'front'. As a result, much like when air is forced up over mountains, the warm less dense air cools, and the water vapour condenses into water and falls as raindrops." I said "And that's only one type of rain." The villagers walked away anyway and ignored our warnings.

"They just won't listen to reason." Katara said.

"But they will listen to aunt wu!" Aang exclaimed.

"I know, that's the problem." Sokka said.

"Well, it's about to become the solution." Aang smirked "We're going to take fate into our own hands. First I need aunt wu's cloud reading book." We walked down to aunt wu's house, Katara, Sokka and I waited outside while Aang went inside. Aang ran out with the cloud book soon after. Katara and Aang jumped onto Oppa and flew into the air. They were going to bend the clouds, because clouds are made of water and air. They were going to bend them into a shape and then get aunt wu to read it and tell the village. I brought aunt wu to the village centre and left the rest to Sokka. Aunt wu looked at the clouds and sounded very worried. Aang and Katara came back. "We can still save the village if we act fast! Sokka has a plan!" Aang announced.

"Lava is going to flow downhill to this town, if we can dig a deep enough trench then we can redirect the lave away from the village to the river." Sokka said.

"If any of you are earth benders please come with me and Aang!" I yelled. There were two twins at the front of the crowed.

"I'm an earth bender!" One said.

"I'm not!" the other twin said.

"Everybody else grab a shovel!" Sokka yelled. The volcano rumbled as well "Come on, we gotta hurry!" Everybody ran around and grabbed what they needed. Many of the earth benders were fully trained and moved massive mounds of rock at a time, I couldn't wait until I met an earth element. When we were done we got everybody to evacuate, we were in the middle of checking that everyone was out of the trench when the lava came. Ash fell from the sky. Sokka, Katara, Aang and I stayed at the edge of the trench. The lava came quickly, hot cinders dotted the air. The lava burnt through the village gate and boulders but then it fell into the trench.

"It's too much, it's going to overflow!" I said. There was a lot more lava still to come. Aang and I stood at the edge, it took a lot of energy but fire benders could bend lava. While Aang and I stayed at the edge of the trench keeping the village safe Katara and Sokka backed away. Aang would blow air, then cool and harden the lava, whereas I would push it down the trench and to the river.

"Man, sometimes I forget what a powerful bender you are." I said to Aang. He smiled.

"Likewise." He said. I smiled and focused back on the lava. In the morning all the lava had gone back into the river and we were all safe, I had to have a really long nap though. Soon I was woken up and brought to the village centre. Aang gave Aunt wu her book back.

"I kind of borrowed your book." Aang said.

"So you messed with the clouds did you?!" She asked, Aang nodded fearfully. She then started laughing "Very clever." She said.

"No offence but I hope this has taught everybody a lesson about not relying too much on fortune telling." Sokka said.

"But aunt wu predicted the village wouldn't be destroyed and it wasn't." An old man said. I slapped my forehead in frustration "She was right after all." The old man carried on.

"I hate you." Sokka said to the old man through gritted teeth. I dragged him away by his hair.

"It's okay Sokka, everything's gonna be alright." Katara said.

"Can I ask you something?" Aang asked.

"Oh course honey." She said.

"You didn't really see love in my fortune did you? You just told me what I wanted to hear." Aang said.

"I'll tell you a little secret, young air bender, just as you reshaped those clouds; you have the power to shape your own destiny." Aunt wu said.

"Besides, who couldn't love you?" I joked. I grabbed him in a headlock and gave him a noogie.

"Bye everybody! It was so nice to meet you! Take care Meng." Katara said. I let Sadie get up and Patch curled up on my shoulder before I climbed up myself.

"Take care." Meng sung. I smiled out of pure happiness.


	15. Chapter 15

We had only been travelling for about a week. Sokka, Aang and I were out on a jog. Aang ran down a hill and yelled "Hey look! A sword made out of a whale's tooth!"

"Let me see that." Sokka said, he grabbed the sword off of Aang. Sokka studied it for a few moments before saying "This is a water tribe weapon, see if you can find anything else." Katara walked down while we were searching.

"Did someone lose something?" Katara asked.

"No, we found something!" I said. Sokka found a spear head, he rubbed it, and it was covered in soot.

"It's burnt." He said.

"Noooo." I said sarcastically. I looked at the trees nearby and saw scratch marks and burns, I gestured Sokka over.

"There was a battle here." He said "Water tribe warriors ambushed a group of fire benders, the fire benders fought back but the warriors drove them down this hill." He ran down the hill, we followed him from behind. We were led to a beach.

"So then what happened?" Aang asked.

"I don't know, the trail ends here." Sokka said glumly.

"Wait, look!" Katara said, she pointed down the beach. There was a boat.

"It's one of our boats!" Sokka yelled. Sokka and Katara ran towards the boat.

"Is this dad's boat?" they asked.

"No, but it's from his fleet." Sokka said "Dad was here." I smiled, it was so good to see hope dance in their eyes.

That night we camped outside the ship, Sadie was sleeping and Patch was stretched out by the fire in front of me, I was curled up into Sadie's fur. Katara was in her sleeping bag and Aang was lying on Oppa and Sokka was poking at the fire. I was almost asleep when I heard Sokka say "Who's there?!" I jumped straight up with my knife. I saw a man dressed in a water tribe outfit.

"Sokka?" he asked.

"Bato?" Sokka asked.

"Who the what now?" Aang asked getting up. One look at Sokka's face and I realised Bato was friendly. I kept my knife in my hand though.

"Bato!" Katara said happily.

"Sokka, Katara." Bato said. He hugged both of them. Wait a minute, a water tribe warrior and a fire nation princess, that could only go well. "It's so good to see you." He said "You've grown so much."

"Hi, I'm Aang." Aang said bowing.

"I'm Hotaru and I am not bowing." I scoffed.

"Where's dad?" Sokka asked.

"Is he here?" Katara asked.

"No, he and the other warriors should be in the eastern earth kingdom by now." Bato said, A strong gust of wind blew us, we all shivered. "This is no place for a reunion, let's get inside." Bato said. He put his arms around Katara and Sokka. He gestured for me and Aang to follow. I picked up Patch and he sat on my shoulder. Sadie and Oppa followed Aang and I. We walked over the beach and through the forest to a group of temple like buildings. "After I was wounded, your father carried me to this abbey, the sisters have cared for me ever since." We walked over to a rather old woman "Superior, these are Hakoda's children, they've been travelling with the avatar and this girl. I found them all by my boat."

"Young avatar, it gives me great joy to be in your presence, welcome to our abbey." Superior said.

"Thank you, it's truly an honour to be here, if there's anything-" Aang started.

"What smells so good Bato?" Sokka asked.

"The sisters craft ointments and perfumes." Bato explained.

"Perfume? Maybe we could dump some on Oppa, because he stinks so much, am I right?" Sokka made that horrible joke, nobody laughed.

"You have your father's wit." Bato said. Bato introduced us into his home.

"Bato, it looks just like home!" Katara exclaimed. The walls were lined with furs and pelts and weapons, and there was a fire in the middle of the room with a tent at the back. I looked at the weapons with great admiration.

"Everything's here, even the pelts!" Sokka said.

"Yeah, nothing's cosier than dead animal skins." Aang said. They opened the pot above the fire and looked at the food in there.

"No way, stewed sea prunes?!" Katara said. I winced, it didn't look very nice.

"What food do you like?" Bato asked me.

"Fire gummies, flaming fire flakes and komodo sausage." I answered. Bato handed Aang a bowl, he sniffed it and poked his tongue out in disapproval.

"Bato, is it true that you and dad lassoed an arctic hippo?!" Katara asked.

"It was your father's idea, he just dragged me along." Bato answered "Well, the hippo did the dragging."  
>"Hey, I ride animals too!" Aang said "One time there was this giant eel and I-"Aang started to speak.<p>

"So, who was it that came up with the great blubber fiasco?" Sokka asked.

Bato laughed and said "You knew about that?" I saw Aang looked sad so I put my arm around his shoulders and hugged him, he smiled. I took my arm away and carried on listening.

"Everyone does." Katara laughed.

"What's that story?" I asked.

"It's a long one Hotaru, some other time." Sokka said.

"You and dad had so many hilarious adventures." Katara said.

"Not all of which were hilarious at the time but everything's funny with Heinz sight. Hey Aang, please put that down." Bato said, I looked around, Aang had taken some sort of animal hat off of the wall and was wearing it "It's ceremonial and very fragile." Bato said. Aang took it off and put it on the wall.

"Was it you or dad that put an octopus on our head and convinced Grangran you were a water spirit?" Sokka asked.

"Your dad wore the octopus and I did the creepy voice." Bato said. Aang was sitting in the corning sadly. I walked over and sat with him. We carried on listening to Bato until night. "There's something I should tell you kids." Bato said to Katara and Sokka "I'm expecting a message from your father."

"Really?!" Katara asked.

"When?!" Sokka asked.

"Any day now." Bato answered "Your father said he'd send a message when they found a rendezvous point, if you wait here until the message arrives you can come with me and see your father again." Bato explained. I cradled my knees to my chest, does that mean Katara and Sokka won't be with us anymore?

"It's been over two years since we've seen dad, that would be so incredible, Katara?" Sokka asked.

"I do really miss him, it would be great to see dad." Katara said.

"It's been far too long hasn't it?" Bato said. After that I didn't want to hear any more and I guess Aang had the same thought. I jumped onto Sadie and took a ride out into the forest while Aang went down to the beach.

"I don't want them to leave us." I said to Sadie, she whined and barked, I bet she didn't want them to leave either. When I rode back I saw that Aang was already there. I walked in and sat down quietly. He was trying to eat the food that Bato had prepared; I threw up in my mouth a little, how could he eat that?! He spat them out in disgust, that's better. We slept there until morning, I helped Aang get some hay for Oppa and then I went down to the beach with Sadie so that she could catch some fish. After a while I saw Aang, Katara and Sokka come down to the beach. I stood up and waved.

"This ship is sentimental to me; it was built by my father." Bato said. I saw Aang looked worried for a moment, I looked at what he was looking at. They were footprints, I frowned, he blew them away with air bending. I shook my head, it was probably nothing.

"Is this the boat he took you ice dodging in?" Sokka asked.

"Yup, and it's got the scar to prove it." Bato said "How about you Sokka? You must have some good stories from your first time ice dodging?"

"He never got to go, dad left before he was old enough." Katara said.

"Oh-I-uh-forgot that you were too young." Bato said.

"What's ice dodging?" Aang asked.

"It's a rite of passage for young water tribe members, when you turn fourteen your dad takes you." Bato explained to us. I looked at Sokka, he looked really sad. "You know what, you're about to find out." Sokka smiled. We got into the boat and started to sail off. "Ice dodging is a ceremonial test of wisdom, bravery and trust. In our village, it was done by weaving a boat through a field of ice bergs." Bato said to Aang and I.

"Awesome!" I yelled "Perilous situations with friends out at sea, it's what I live for." I said.

"How are we supposed to ice dodge without ice?" Sokka asked, we were in a warm climate so there was no ice.

"You'll be dodging those." Bato pointed. I looked at what he was pointing at, there were big sharp rocks. Aang, Katara and Sokka looked worried, I just fist punched the air and got exited. Bato quickly explained "Sokka, you'll be steering and you'll also call the shots, lead wisely. Katara, you secure the main sail, the winds can be brutal so be brave. Hotaru, join Katara, oh, and you'll probably want to take of that jacket so you can move around easier." I hesitated but then took off my jacket revealing my bare arms, his eyes lingered on my scar for a moment before he said to Aang "Aang, you control this, without your steady hand we all go down, your position is about trust."

"I know that, why wouldn't I know that?! I'm the avatar, I know about trust!" Aang said. I frowned, what was he hiding, and it had to be something.

"For this to be done right I cannot help, you pass or fail on your own." Bato said, he sat at the front of the ship so he couldn't see where we were going, he could only see us. Then we headed into the rocks.

"Aang! Ease up!" Sokka said "Katara, Hotaru, steady! Aang, less sail, Katara, Hotaru, give him room!" We managed to dodge the rocks, now there were more "Aang! Helm to lee! Helm to lee!"

"What does that even mean?!" Aang said, he pulled the rope in a random direction anyway. We dodged the next set of rocks.

"Great job!" Sokka yelled. We were heading straight for another load of rocks, but these ones were dangerously close together.

"There's no way through!" Katara yelled.

"There's always a way through!" I replied.

"We can make it." Sokka said.

Bato stood up and said "Sokka, you've already proven yourself, maybe we should-"

"Aang, I'm gonna need air in that sail, Katara, I want you to bend as much water as you can between us and those rocks, Hotaru, take over for Katara and Aang." I nodded and had two ropes in my hand. "NOW!" Sokka yelled. I pulled on the ropes while Aang swiped air into the sails and Katara bent the water below us to make us go onto a big bulge of water. Aang carried us while the water below us lifted us above the rocks, we made it to safety. Sokka let out a sigh of relief.

"That was fun, can we do it again?" I asked.

"NO!" they all yelled in unison, we all laughed again and sailed back to shore. Bato got a small bowl of something special.

"The spirits of water bare witness to these marks, for Sokka, the mark of the wise, the same our father got." Bato said, he drew a sharp ark over a dot on Sokka's forehead. "For Katara, the mark of the brave, your courage inspires us." He drew a crescent on Katara's forehead. "For Hotaru, the mark of the determined, never give up, for Aang, the mark of the trusted, you are now an honorary member of the water tribe." Bato said.

"I can't." Aang said, he looked very sad at this point.

"Of course you can." Katara said. Aang wiped the symbol off of his forehead.

"No, you can't trust me." Aang said.

"Aang, what are you talking about?" Katara asked.

"Yes, what are you talking about?" I asked.

"A messenger gave this to me for Bato." Aang said, he brought out a crumpled piece of paper. Katara opened it and looked at it, "You have to understand, I was afraid you would-"

"This is the map to our father!" Sokka yelled "You had it the whole time?! How could you?!"

"Aang, " I said, why? I was afraid about Sokka and Katara leaving, but this wasn't a nice thing to do.

"You two can go to the North Pole on your own, I'm going to find dad!" Sokka yelled storming off.

"Now Sokka, I think you should-" Bato started.

"Katara, are you with me?" Sokka asked.

"I'm with you Sokka," She said. Aang looked like he was going to cry. The three water tribe members walked away and off of the beach. Katara, Sokka and Bato got ready to leave and so did Aang and I. We had wiped the symbols off of our foreheads and I had managed to get Sadie and Oppa ready. While we sat on Oppa Katara walked over. "Good luck." She said.

"Okay, you too." Aang said. I watched the water tribe members walk out of the village and had to wipe away a few tears. Superior walked over to us "Guess we should get going." Aang said.

"That would be best." She said. Aang pulled on Oppa's rope and we went away.

"I'm an idiot, aren't I?" Aang asked.

"Yes." I said plainly. We walked down to the beach and stayed there, just looking out at the sea.

"Looks like it's just us." Aang said. Suddenly superior ran down onto the beach.

"Avatar, you must leave." She said.

"Okay I get it, everybody wants me gone!" Aang complained.

"A group of people came to the abbey looking for you." She said.

"Who?" Aang asked.

"A fierce looking woman with a horrible monster and a young man with a scar." She said.

"Zuko." Aang and I said in unison.

"The beast was using the scent of a necklace to follow you." Superior said.

"A necklace?" I asked.

"KATARA!" Aang yelled. Aang, Oppa, Momo, Patch, Sadie and I ran back to village as fast as we could. Oppa and Sadie waited at the side while Aang flew in the air and I stayed on a roof. We waited, suddenly Zuko, Iroh, the woman and her beast busted through the gates, I saw Katara and Sokka on the back of the beast. It circled on the ground, but that was because Aang was circling in the air.

"What's it doing?!" Zuko barked "It's just going in a circle?!" Aang dived down and went over the beast, the animal jumped up to try and catch him but it fell over and all the people on it fell off. I jumped off the roof and got Katara and Sokka, Zuko saw me but focused on Aang. I lent Katara and Sokka against the wall.

"Aang." Katara said.

"UP!" The woman yelled, she whipped the animal with a whip and got onto its back. They ran at Aang but Oppa ran in and tackled them from the side. Zuko walked over to me.

"Hello sister." He said bitterly. I said nothing, just got into my fighting stance. He first kicked some fire at me. I blocked it with my fist and made my own fire to throw at him, he dodged it easily, I really needed to practice my fire bending. He ran so we were fighting close range, my speciality. He tried to land a punch but I caught his fist and ducked under his arm until I was behind him, which is where I kicked him, he went flying into the wall. When it comes to fire nation fighting it's a very dynamic style. It uses powerful hand and leg movement. Our fighting style generally uses long range techniques, wide stances, quick advances and retreats and kicking and leaping techniques, it's about speed and agility. I looked as Zuko got up, he may be an expert but I could still kick his ass. Our fighting was all about offense. I realised that Katara and Sokka were watching.

"Watch and learn Sokka." I laughed. Zuko took a deep breath in and when he let it out he sent a large wave of fire at me. I made a wide circular block and got ready for the next attack. He jumped up and kicked a fire ball. I put my hand together and defended so that the fire went around me. Zuko knew I couldn't fire bend properly so that's what he was focusing on, okay then, I just needed to break his roots. I was knocked to the floor while I was thinking. He came over and tried to finish me off. I looked at Katara and Sokka, they looked so worried, I couldn't stop here, I couldn't give up. I swung my leg around and managed to knock him off of his feet, I broke his roots. While he was on the floor I looked around to see Oppa, he was on the floor, paralysed. When I looked at Aang he was doing fine, but Zuko was to put an end to that, he went to go and fight Aang. While he was doing that I walked over to Iroh, he had just slipped some of the perfume into his sleeve. I rolled my eyes and held my hand out. He frowned and handed the perfume to me. I put it back onto the tray and smiled.

"You've been training." Iroh said to me.

"So has Zuko." I said.

"Yes." Iroh answered. I continued to watch Zuko and Aang fighting. "Why are you smiling?" Iroh asked.

"Aang's going to win." I said.

"How'd you figure?" he asked.

"Watch, Zuko hasn't adjusted to Aang's style of fighting, Aang is going for defence and Zuko is concentrating on offense, eventually Zuko will tire out and then Aang has to make a small attack and poof, down goes Zuko." I said.

"Very good observations." Iroh said.

"Thanks Uncle." I smiled.

"I'm starting to get some feeling back." Sokka said. Suddenly the fight was brought onto the roof above Sokka and lots of tiles and wood fell down onto him "Ow." He said. The fight between Aang and Zuko was now on top of a well, Aang had dived down the well, Zuko blasted some fire down, all the water came out and blew Zuko up into the sky. Aang came up after the water and landed perfectly on the floor while Zuko face planted into the ground, I winced, that has gotta hurt. The water from the wall came back down like rain. Sokka and Katara had gotten up and had their feeling back. "That thing sees with its nose right? Let's give him something to look at." Sokka said.

"The perfume?" superior suggested. Sokka nodded. All the sisters tipped their perfume onto the floor. Katara and I were going to water bend it. The monster and Zuko had Aang backed up against a wall. Katara and I water bended the perfume as a big wave and drenched the monster, its rider and Zuko. The beast tried to shake the perfume off. It looked up and down and shook its head before tossing its rider and whining. It flicked out its tongue that paralyses and hot Zuko, he fell to the ground. Then it hit its rider. Iroh jumped and caught June, the rider's name and fell to the floor with her on him. The beast, which I now recognised as a Shirshu, was running around madly and destroying everything. It finally jumped over a roof and ran away. Aang picked up his staff and sighed in relief. I sat down and took a breather. Patch ran over and scurried up my body before sitting on my shoulder and licking my cheek.

"Uncle, I didn't see you get hit with the tongue." Zuko said to Iroh.

"Shhhh." Iroh said, I saw June look very aggravated. I laughed, good ol' uncle Iroh. We left them there and got onto Oppa and flew away.

"Soooo, where do we go?" Aang asked.

"We're getting you to the North Pole." Katara said.

"Yeah, we've lost too much time as it is." Sokka added.

"Don't you wanna see your father?" I asked.

"Of course we do Hotaru, but you two are our family too, and right now, you need us more." Sokka said.

"And we need you." Katara smiled. I hugged Sokka and Katara.

"Thank you." I said.

"I wish I could give you a little piece of home Katara." Aang said "Something to remind you."

"I'll be okay." Katara said.

"Still, just a little trinket." Aang said "Maybe something liiiiiike, this!" he held out Katara's necklace.

"AANG! How'd you get that?!" She asked, she put the necklace back around her neck.

"Zuko asked me to be sure I got it to you." Aang said.

"Awwww, that's so sweet of Zuko," Katara said sarcastically "Would you give him a kiss for me when you see him?" she asked.

"Sure." Aang smiled. Katara went to Aang and kissed his cheek, his face went bright red. He smiled and I laughed hysterically.


	16. Chapter 16

I had been feeling like someone was watching us but I normally just brushed it off. We walked to a pillar in the forest and looked for something to do. "This should give us a good idea of what's around here." Katara said.

"Well, tell me if there's any fire nation asses to kick." I said.

"See if you can find a menu, I'm starving." Sokka said.

"Yeah, me too." I said.

"I bet we'll find something to eat here!" Aang said, he pointed to a poster. I looked at what the poster said. "The fire days festival." Aang said.

"I used to run away from home every year and go here for a few days when I was small." I said "But mother found out and forbid me from running away, instead the whole family went every year, it was so embarrassing. Fire nation cultural exhibits, jugglers, benders, magicians." I read the poster.

"This would be a great a place for me to study some real fire benders!" Aang said.

"And after my last run in with Zuko, I need a lot of practice." I said.

"You might wanna rethink that." Sokka said, he was round the other side of the pillar "Look at this." I walked around the edge and saw a wanted poster with a picture of Aang.

"Hey it's you!" I said.

"A wanted poster." Sokka said. "This is bad."

"I think we better keep moving." Katara said.

" I have to learn fire bending at some point, and this could be my only chance to watch the masters up close." Aang said.

"And I really want to flaming fire flakes." I pleaded.

"I guess we could go check it out." Katara said.

"What?!" Sokka asked "You wanna walk into a fire nation town where they're all fired up with all their-uh-you know, fire?"

"I could set you on fire?" I suggested.

"We'll wear disguises." Katara said "And, if it looks like trouble we'll leave."

"Yeah, because we always leave _before_ we get into trouble." Sokka said.

"I thought you'd have more guts than that Sokka, even Momo has more guts than you." I mocked. We walked to where we could see the town, it was quite a small town and there were open fields surrounding it, we were on a cliff, just next to it where there was a forest.

"You guys stay out of sight here while we go to the festival." Aang said. Patch and Momo his behind a small bush then Oppa tried to hide behind it, I laughed, silly Oppa. Sadie licked my face and sat down next to the bush. I heard some rustling in the woods behind us, I quickly whirled around and held my knife up. "What is it?" Aang asked.

"Nothing, probably just an animal." I said. I put my knife away again and scratched Patch behind the ear.

"Ready disguises." Aang said. Katara, Sokka and I brought up a cloak each and put the hood up. Aang pulled his cloak up and over his head so it covered his head, he now looked like a hunch back. I face palmed.

"It's like you're a whole different person." Sokka said sarcastically. Katara and I giggled.

"Let's go." Aang said. We nodded and followed him down to the town. There were lights and fire nation people everywhere, there were fireworks going off everywhere and stalls everywhere. All the people here wore masks. I looked at Katara, Sokka and Aang, they looked terrified. I laughed.

"What?" I asked them.

"They're all fire nation." Sokka said.

"And for now, so are you." I said.

"That's easy for you to say, you actually are fire nation." Katara said. I laughed and nodded.

"I think we need some new disguises." I said, gesturing to all the masks.

"Where are we going to get masks like that?!" Sokka asked.

"Get your genuine fire nation festival masks here!" I heard a guy yell.

"That was surprisingly easy." Sokka said. We all went over to the stall and got some masks. Katara had a mask on that looked like a woman, Aang had a mask that looked like it was crying, Sokka had a mask that looked like it was smiling and my mask had swirls and patterns all over it. Katara looked at the masks on Aang and Sokka before switching them around so Aang had the happy mask and Sokka had the sad mask.

"Hey, there's some food." Aang said. I looked where he was pointing; my mouth started watering, flaming fire flakes.

"Finally." Sokka said. We ran over to the stall.

"What do ya have?" Sokka asked.

"Flaming fire flakes." The stall owner said "Best in town." He handed both Sokka and I a bag of them. The flakes were glowing and smoking a little.

"We'll take 'em." Sokka said. He gave the man some money. Sokka shoved a handful in his mouth all at once, not a good idea. He spat them out because they were so hot "HOT HOT HOT HOT!" he yelled, fanning his tongue

"Flaming fire flakes, hot, what do ya know?!" Katara said. I calmly ate mine with no problem; Sokka looked at me in confusion.

"They're my favourite." I shrugged. I finished my fire flakes before we went over to a puppet show. A puppet of the Fire Lord came onto the stage. The kids watching cheered.

"Don't worry loyal citizens, no one can surprise the Fire Lord!" the puppet said. An earth bender puppet appeared behind the Fire Lord, the kids booed. The Fire Lord puppet spat fire at the earth bender puppet, it burned, I chewed my lip. The kids cheered. We walked away and followed Aang.

"Aang, hold on, where are we going?!" Katara asked.

"I don't know, but there's a big crowed so it must be good." Aang said. We walked to the front of a crowed and to the stage. On stage there was a guy who was fire bending.

"Knowing the fire nation, it's probably an execution." Sokka said. I punched his arm as hard as I could. "OW!" he yelled. The guy on stage bent fire in balls around the stage, they all exploded and out flew birds.

"I gotta learn that trick." Aang said.

"Slow down, you might want to learn how to actually fire bend first." I said.

"Thank you, for my next trick, I will need a volunteer from the audience!" the guy on stage said. Aang put his hand up.

"Me, me, me, me!" Aang said loudly.

"What're you doing?" Sokka asked him.

"I wanna get a closer look." Aang said.

"It's better that we don't attract any attention to ourselves." Katara said.

"How about you young lady!" the guy said, he pointed at Katara.

"Uhhhh." She said, she took a step back and shook her head.

"Awwww, she's shy, let's give her some encouragement folks!" the guy yelled. Someone from the crowed pushed Katara forward; she was pulled up onto the stage. She was sat down on a chair in the middle of the stage.

"Awwww, that could've been me." Aang pouted.

"This next trick is called taming the dragon!" the guy yelled "You will be my captured princess." He tied Katara to the chair. He made a fire dragon in the air and let it fly around a little. "Don't worry young maiden, I will tame this fiery beast!" he made a fire rope in his hand that went around the dragon's neck. "It's too strong, I can't hold it!" he said, he was putting on a show.

"We gotta help her!" Aang said.

"No, we don't wanna make a scene." Sokka said.

"The rope, it's breaking!" the guy yelled. The fake fire rope disappeared. The dragon flew towards Katara. Suddenly Aang jumped up onto the stage.

"AANG! NO!" I yelled. His mask fell off and he used air bending to destroy the dragon, it burst into confetti.

"Hey, you trying to upstage me kid?" the guy asked. The whole crowed booed Aang. He started dancing. Sokka got onto the stage and tried undoing the rope around Katara, he couldn't. I rolled my eyes and got on as well. I walked behind Katara and burnt the ropes so that they broke.

"HEY! That kid's the avatar!" someone in the crowed said.

"Busted." I said. Guards turned around and started to come to the stage. "Well, this was fun but we need to go now." I said.

"Follow me." I heard a voice say "I can get you outta here." He said, it was a man with a cloak and some cloth covering half of his face.

"THERE THEY ARE!" A guard yelled. I pushed the others forward, we followed the man. The man took out a bomb and threw it at the guards before following us. We ran through the streets.

"I'm calling Oppa!" Aang said. He pulled out his bison whistle and blew it hard.

"I hope he can hear that!" Sokka said.

"This way." The man said. We followed him down a street. We saw guards at the end of the street "Okay, not this way." He said. He threw another bomb as we ran the other way. We came to a dead end; there was a large barrel full of fireworks. We were now cornered by guards and the fireworks. I heard a growl behind me, I looked around.

"OPPA!" I yelled.

"Down here!" Aang shouted. Oppa landed in front of us and lifted his tail up, when it came down he blew all of the guards away. We got onto Oppa and left. When we left I looked at the fireworks and grinned. I pointed two of my fingers at the barrel and fired a small blast, it hit the fireworks, and they all went off. The town cheered. I sighed and lent against the edge of Oppa's saddle.

"Nice touch." Aang said.

"Thanks." I said.

"You seem to really know your explosives." Sokka said to the guy.

"I'm familiar." He said. Sokka gasped.

"You're a fire nation soldier!" he said.

"Was, my name's Chey." He said. We landed and set up a campfire. When we were all sat down he said "I serve a man, more than a man really, he's a myth, but he's real, a living legend, Jeong Jeong the deserter, he was a fire nation general, wait, or was it an admiral."

"We get it, he's very highly ranked." Sokka said.

"Yeah! Way up there, but he couldn't take the madness any more, he's the first person to every leave the army and live. I'm the second, but you don't get to be a legend for that." Chey said.

"Well, Hotaru left the royal family and she's hardly know." Aang said. I slapped my forehead, really Aang.

"What do you mean?" Chey asked.

"My father is Fire Lord Ozai." I said.

"That's fine by me princess-" Chey started to speak but I cut him off.

"Drop the princess." I said. He nodded in reply.

"Jeong Jeong is a fire bending genius, some say he's mad, but he's not, he's enlightened." Chey said.

"You mean there's a fire bender out here that's not with the fire lord, we've gotta go see him, he can train me and you!" Aang said to me.

"We're not going to find some crazy fire bender." Sokka said.

"He's not crazy, he's a genius!" Chey said "He's the perfect person to train the avatar, that's why I followed you to the festival."

"Look, we thank you for the help back there but we're leaving for the North Pole in the morning." I said.

"Come on, this could be my only chance to meet a fire bending master who'd actually be willing to teach me." Aang pleaded.

"It can't hurt just to talk to him." Katara said.

"That's what you said about going to the festival!" Sokka yelled "Why doesn't anyone every listen to me?!" Suddenly people jumped down all around us, they held spears to us, I did not like that. I kicked the spear away from the person next to me and then pushed them down to the floor. More spear holding people jumped down next to me.

"Don't move." One of them said. We were walked through the forest "Jeong Jeong told you not to look for avatar!" one of them said to Chey.

"Hold on, you know these guys?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, Lin Yee's an old buddy, right Lin Yee?" Chey said.

"Shut up!" Lin Yee said, pointing a spear at Chey "Keep moving." We carried on walking until we got to a river, by the river was a small house made of corrugated metal. "Go on, he sees you only." Lin Yee said to Chey.

"That's okay, we can chat later." Chey said to Aang.

"Is that where Jeong Jeong is?" Aang asked "I need to talk to him right away." Aang started to walk forward but Lin Yee stopped him from walking with his spear.

"No, you wait there." He then pushed Chey forward and said "You, go now."

"Don't worry, everything will be fine, he's a great man." Chey said, he walked down to the house. I sat down on the side of the river and closed my eyes, I meditated. When I stopped I felt someone watching me. I stood up and whistled, Patch, who was playing in the river, ran over and sat on my shoulder, I kissed his forehead and walked off. I went to where Aang was sitting, Chey was with him.

"What happened, are you going to see him yet?" I asked Aang.

"No, he won't see me, he says that I need to master the other elements first." Aang said sadly.

"How did he know that you hadn't mastered the other elements?" I asked.

"He saw the way Aang walked into camp, he could tell." Chey said. I grabbed Aang and pulled him up.

"You will go and see him, no fear, you will be trained." I said, I pushed Aang out of the door. Aang came back a few minutes later grinning like an idiot.

"He's gonna train me." He said.

"I can tell." I smiled, with that I sat down on the floor went to sleep. In the morning Sokka went fishing, Katara and I were practicing water bending.

"Widen your stance." Jeong Jeong said to Aang. Aang was on a rock, he widened his stance "Wider!" Jeong Jeong commanded "Bend your knees." He barked "Now concentrate."Aang stayed still and concentrated. "Good, good."

"Wait! What do I do now?" Aang asked.

"Silence, talking is not concentrating, look at these two girls, is she talking? Even that oaf knows to concentrate on what he's doing." Jeong Jeong said.

"HEY!" Sokka yelled.

"But what am I concentrating on?" Aang asked.

"Feel the heat of the sun, it is the greatest source of fire, yet it is in complete balance with nature." Jeong Jeong said.

"So when do I get to make some fire?" Aang asked.

"Concentrate!" Jeong Jeong yelled. Aang sighed angrily. Katara, Sokka and I started laughing, Aang looked around at us, we stopped. After Aang had finished that exercise he was taken up a mountain. Katara and I got bored practicing so we were playing a game with water bending, it was basically just catch but with a small globe of water. After a few moments Jeong Jeong went back into his hut and I went down the river so that I could practice in silence. Again, I got bored so I went into the forest and sat in a tree and relaxed. Before I knew it I fell asleep on the branch.

I was awoken by the sound of crying. I snapped my eyes opened and lost my balance, I fell out of the tree and onto the floor. I got up and brushed myself off. I watched the scene in front of me. It was Katara, she was crying and cradling her hands. She then lowered them into the water, I saw a weird glowing light, she took her hands out and wasn't crying any more.

"You have healing abilities." I heard Jeong Jeong say, he came out from somewhere else in the forest "The great benders of the water tribe sometimes have this ability, I've always wished I were blessed like you, free from this burning curse."

"But you're a great master, you have powers I'll never know." Katara said.

"Water brings healing and life, but fire brings only destruction and anger." Jeong Jeong said. I walked out of the forest and sat next to him.

"You're wrong." I said.

"Excuse me?" he asked, offended.

"Fire isn't about destruction and anger; it's about warmth and inner strength." I said. I lit a flame on my palm and said "Fire keeps everything safe, it only burns if you let it." Patch stretched out on the floor by my hand because it was warm "See, the animals love it but they don't let it hurt them."

"You speak like an expert." Jeong Jeong said.

"No, I speak like someone with no hatred or anger." I said.

"But you hate the fire nation." He said.

"No, I don't hate anyone, they are misunderstood, the only thing that bothers me is that they don't fire bend with warmth, they fire bend with anger." I said.

"Well said." Jeong Jeong said "But fire burdens us who carry its care to walk a razors edge between humanity and savagery, eventually we're torn apart." He said. Suddenly a giant fire ball was thrown at the water in front of us. I stood up straight away, Patch ran up and onto my shoulder. Jeong Jeong blocked a fire ball that was aimed at us.

"Come on Katara!" I yelled, I grabbed her hand and pulled her up. I looked down the river, three boats were sailing down.

"Get your friends and flee!" Jeong Jeong yelled. We nodded and ran. "Do not come back here or you will all be destroyed! Hurry!" We ran back and saw Sokka.

"Katara, are you alright?!" Sokka asked.

"I'm fine." She said calmly.

"Sokka, we have to get outta here." I said.

"Where's Aang?" Katara asked.

Sokka pointed behind him, to the house down the bottom. Katara ran that way while I filled our water bottles ready to leave. "What's going on?" Sokka asked.

"Zhao and his soldiers are attacking down the river." I said. I saw Aang run out of the hut and towards where Jeong Jeong was. I continued to get everything ready to leave. We went down to where Aang was. I saw that all the boats were on fire and so was the forest. I took a deep breath in and pulled all the fire off of the trees. It ended up in a ball between my hands. I made the fire disappear. We got onto Oppa and left.

"Wait, where's Jeong Jeong?" Aang asked.

"He disappeared, they all did." Sokka said, we all looked down at the field, nobody was there. Once we had left we relaxed.

"I never realised what you had to handle to fire bend." Aang said to me.

"Aang, you're burned." Katara said. I looked at his arm, his skin was red. "Let me help you." She said. She uncorked her bottle and brought out a glove of water, she put it on his skin and left it there. She took a deep breath in and then let it out, the water glowed blue and then when it dripped off his arm was completely healed.

"Wow, that is good water." Aang said.

"When did you learn how to do that?" Sokka asked.

"I guess I always knew." Katara said.

"Oh, well then thanks for all the first aid over the years, like when I fell into the grease fire bramble and when I had two fish hooks in my thumb!" Sokka complained.

"Two?" I asked.

"He tried to get the first one out with another one." Katara laughed.

"Oh and the time that snake but me! Thanks for healing that up, that was great, really helpful." Sokka said. I fell over laughing.


	17. Chapter 17

Over the past few days we had been travelling and playing games, Katara taught me how to heal with water bending as well! At the moment we were listening to a story "So travellers, the next time you think you think you hear a strange, large bird talking, take a closer look, it might not be a giant parrot, but a flying man, a member of a secret group of air walkers who laugh at gravity and laugh at those bound to the earth by it." The man said, I saw Aang smiling.

"Aren't air bending stories the best?!" Aang said. I nodded in agreement.

"Was it realistic, is that how it was back then?" Katara asked.

"I laugh at gravity all the time…ha-ha, gravity." He said.

"Jingle jingle." The man said, he was holding out his hat, collecting money from the story. He held it out to Sokka. Sokka dug through his pockets, when he pulled his hand s out he had some bread crumbs and a dead bug. "Sorry." He said.

"Awwww." The story-teller said.

"Hey, thanks for the story." Aang said.

"Tell it to the hat." The man said, he held out his hat for money. Out of the hat fell a coin, Momo bent down and out it into the hat.

"Awwww, much obliged little bat thing." The man said, he patted Momo's head.

"It means a lot to hear air bender stories, it must have been 100 years ago your great grandpa met them." Aang said.

"What are you talking about?! Great Grandpapy saw the air walkers last week!" the man said. And with that story we flew to The Northern Air Temple.

"We're almost at The Northern Air Temple!" Aang said happily, we had been travelling for a few days to get here "This is where they held the championships for sky bison polo."

"Do you think we'll find air benders?" Katara asked Sokka.

"You want me to be like you or totally honest?" Sokka asked.

"Are you saying I'm a liar?" Katara asked, sounding a little annoyed.

"I'm saying you're an optimist, same thing basically." Sokka said.

"HEY GUYS! Look at this!" Aang said. I looked in his direction, there were figures flying around the temple, but they didn't fly like Aang.

"They really are air benders!" Katara said.

"No, I don't think they are." I said.

"What do you mean?!" Sokka asked "Those guys are flying!"

"Gliding maybe but not flying, you can tell by the way they move, they're not air bending." Aang said unhappily. "Those people have no spirit." Aang said. I saw someone on a gilder come near.

"Can I shoot it down?" I asked.

"No!" Katara said. The guy on the glider laughed, I smiled, at least he had a sense of humour. "I don't know Aang, that kid seemed pretty spirited." Katara said. I saw Aang looked study him. I laughed and walked to Aang.

"Go on then." I said, Aang grinned and nodded. He jumped up and opened his glider before flying with the boy. There were other gliders, one flew in front of Oppa and chucked Katara and I back onto Sokka. "OW." I said angrily.

"We better find some solid ground before it finds us." Sokka said. I nodded and crawled to Oppa's head. I sat down and grabbed his reigns, I steered him down onto a platform. When we landed I jumped off and watched Aang and the other kid.

"GO TEO!" I heard a little girl yell, Teo, that was his name. They flew and did all sort of tricks in the air. I watched as Aang jumped off his glider and rode an air scooter around the side of building before jumping back onto his glider. I cheered for Aang. After that Teo drew a picture in the air of Aang frowning, it was a spitting image of Aang. I laughed and continued to watch. They landed on the ground in front of us after a few more tricks. The glider parts were taken off of Teo's so he was in a rolling chair, I realised that he was probably paralysed. He put his goggles on top of his head and rolled over to us.

"Hey, you're a real air bender." Teo said to Aang "You must be the avatar! That's amazing; I've heard stories about you."

"Thanks." Aang said.

"Wow, this glider chair is incredible." Sokka said.

"You think this is good, wait until you see the other stuff my dad designs." Teo said, we followed him into the temple. There were pipes and smoke everywhere, they were coming out of the walls and they were over the floor, smoke was billowing out of tubes and funnels, it was so different the other air temple we were at. Aang looked around unhappily and very worriedly.

"Whoa!" Sokka said. He ran to go and touch something. I grabbed his shirt and dragged him back.

"Yeah, my dad is the mastermind behind this whole place!" Teo said proudly "Everything's powered by hot air, it even pumps hot air currents outside to give us a lift when we're gliding."

"This place is unbelievable." Aang said.

"Yeah, it's great isn't it?" Teo said.

"No, just unbelievable." Aang said.

"I'm sorry Teo, Aang used to come here a long time ago; he just isn't used to so much change. It's just so different." I said.

"So better!" Sokka yelled. I frowned, walked over to him and punched him hard, he flew into the wall. I smiled and walked back to where I was standing. I held my hand out for Teo to shake.

"I'm Hotaru." I said.

"Nice to meet you." Teo said. I smiled and walked over to Aang. He was looking at a picture; there were piped coming out of it and smashing parts of it.

"This is supposed to be the history of my people." Aang said. He then walked over to a fountain; the water was green and bubbling. He looked at the bull statue over head, black smoke puffed out of its mouth suddenly, he jumped back in surprise.

"I'm sure some parts of the temple are still the same." Katara tried to comfort. We walked out of the building and across a bridge until we got to another building. In the building there were no pipes or anything.

"Well, it's nice to see that one part of the temple is still the same." Aang said. We looked at a statue of an air bender. It was so peaceful, so tranquil, but of course when we're there that's not allowed to last. Suddenly a giant wrecking ball beheaded the statue and smashed the wall. A cloud of dust erupted, we all coughed and waved the smoke away. A man with crazy hair and massive mismatched eyebrows walked out.

"What the doodle?!" he said "Don't you know enough to stay away from construction sites, we have to make room for the bath house!"

"Well, we don't have to be worries, nobody who says 'what the doodle' can possibly be evil." I said.

"Do you know what you did?!" Aang yelled very angrily "You just destroyed something sacred for a stupid bath house!"

"Well people around here are starting to stink." The man said.

"This whole place stinks!" Aang yelled. He used his staff and blew the crane off of the edge of the mountain. "This is a sacred temple, you can't treat it this way! I've seen it when the monks were here, I know what it's supposed to look like!"

"Monks? But you're 12?" the man said.

"Dad, he's the avatar! He used to come here 100 years ago." Teo said.

"What're you doing, who said you could be here?!" Aang yelled.

"Hmmmmm, a long time ago, but not 100 years, my people became refugees after a terrible flood, my baby son, Teo, was badly hurt and lost his mother." The guy sniffled, as if he were about to cry "I needed somewhere to rebuild and I stumbled across this place, couldn't believe it! Everywhere, pictures of flying people but empty, nobody home, then I came across these fan like contraptions!" he said.

"Our gliders." Aang said.

"Yes, yes, little light flying machines, they gave me an idea, build a new life for my son, in the air then everybody would be on equal ground, so to speak. We're just in the process of improving on what's already here and after all, isn't that was nature does?" the mechanist said.

"Nature knows where to stop." Aang said.

"I suppose that's true, unfortunately progress has a way of getting away from us, look at the time!" the mechanist said. He pointed to some candles "Come, the pulley system must be oiled before dark."

"Wait, how can you tell the time from this, the notches all look the same." Sokka said.

"The candle will tell us." The mechanist said "Watch." We watched the candle, suddenly it popped 4 times.

"You put spark powder in the candle." Sokka said.

"4 flashes, so it's exactly four hours past midday. Or as I call it four o'candle." The mechanist joked. Sokka laughed but nobody else did. "If you like that, wait until you see my finger safe knife sharpener!" He held up his hand, three of his fingers were wood. He took them off and put them in Sokka's hands.

"Ugh!" Sokka exclaimed.

"Only took me three tries to get it right!" he said. "Follow me!" he said.

"Hey Aang, I wanna show you something." Teo said. We followed him through some tunnels.

"I just can't get over it, there's not a single thing that's the same." Aang said.

"I don't know about that." Teo said "The temple might be different but the creatures that live here are probably direct descendants of the ones that lived here a long time ago."He picked up a hermit crap off the floor and put it into my hands. I smiled and stroked the shell of it. Patch poked his head out from my hair for the first time in the temple and sniffed the crab.

"Oh yeah, this is Patch." I said. Teo laughed and scratched Patch behind the ear.

"You're right; these creatures are kind of keepers of the temples origin." Katara said. I handed the hermit crab to Aang. He smiled and played with it.

"Besides, there's one part of the temple that hasn't changed at all." Teo said. He led us to a big set of wooden doors. On the doors was the same type of lock as in the other air temple, the one where only air bending could open it.

"It's just like the one in the other air temple." I said.

"Only an air bender can open it, so inside its completely untouched, just the way the monks left it." Teo said. "I always wondered what it was like in there." He said.

"Aang?" Katara asked.

"I'm sorry, but this is the last part of the temple that's the same as it was, I want it to stay that way." Aang said.

"I completely understand." Teo said "I just wanted you to know it was here."

"Thanks." Aang said, and with that we went back. We were walked back to where we arrived; Katara and I were going to fly.

"The wind will carry you, it supports something inside you, something even lighter than air and that something takes over when you fly." Teo explained.

"I've changed my mind, I think I was born without that something." Katara said.

"HAHAHA, impossible, everybody has it." Teo said.

"Spirit." Aang said.

"What?" Teo asked.

"That's the something you're talking about." Aang said.

"Yeah, I suppose it is, you guys ready?" He asked.

"No." Katara said.

"Oh for God's sake Katara." I said, I pushed her off the edge and laughed. "My turn!" I yelled. I jumped off and glided across the air. While Katara flew alongside Aang I flew alongside Teo. He laughed.

"You're brave." He laughed.

"I get that a lot." I smiled. I glided over to Katara "How you doing?" I asked.

"I can't believe I'm flying!" she said.

"Just make sure you keep your mouth closed so you don't swallow a bug." Aang said.

"Teo was right about the air, all I had to do is trust it." I said.

"You just let it carry you." Katara said.

"Even though Teo's not an air bender, he really does have the spirit of one!" Aang said happily. Aang swooped down and landed, I swooped down and guessed how to stop, I was right. I put the glider down and smiled and Teo. "I've been thinking, if you wanna see what's in that room, I'd be happy to open the door for you." Aang said to Teo.

"Great." Teo said.

"Wait! How do I land this thing?!" Katara yelled, she was still flying "What if I-"she started to cough "Ugh-bug, bug! That was a bug!" We walked back down to the door.

"I can't believe I'm finally going to see what's inside." Teo said. Aang blasted two air currents into the locks, the door opened. When we walked in I gasped, lining the walls were weapons, not just any weapons but fire nation weapons and there was a big fire nation banner on the wall.

"This is a nightmare." Aang said.

"You don't understand!" the mechanist yelled from behind us.

"You're making weapons for the fire nation!" Aang yelled. Sokka was behind the mechanist.

"You're making weapons for the fire nation?!" Sokka yelled.

"Yes, I think we've established that." I said to Sokka sarcastically.

"Explain all this!" Teo said angrily "NOW!"

"It was about a year after we moved here, fire nation soldiers found our settlement, you were too young to remember this Teo, they were going to destroy everything, burn it to the ground, I pleaded with them, I begged them to spare us, they asked what I had to offer, I offered my services, you must understand, I did this for you Teo." The mechanist said, Teo turned away from him in shame.

"Can I?" I asked.

"Yes." Aang said. I blasted some fire at the banner and watched it burn. Teo looked at me in surprise.

"I'm fire nation." I said calmly.

"Okay." He said, I was expecting more but he didn't say anything else. We walked up to the room the mechanist was in.

"When are they coming?" Aang asked.

"Soon." The mechanist answered. The candle popped a few times "Very soon."

"You can't give them more weapons." I said.

"If I don't give them what I want then they'll destroy this place." The mechanist said.

"I'll destroy them." I growled. There was a small balloon model flying through the air. I blasted a small bolt of fire at it, it fell to the ground.

"How can I be proud of you when your inventions are being used for murder?" Teo asked.

"I need some time to think." The mechanist said. A bell rung a few times. "You need to leave." He said "Go!"

"We're not leaving." Teo said firmly.

"Then hide." The mechanist said. We hid behind a table in the room.

"You know better than to keep me waiting." An old man was raised through a trap door. "Give me what you owe us so I can be on my way. Well, is there a problem?"

"No, right this way." The mechanist said, he gestured to the open door. Aang jumped out and slammed the door. I came out after him.

"The deal's off." Aang said.

"The avatar." The old man said.

"Aang, Hotaru, don't get involved." The mechanist said.

"Hotaru? Princess." The old man bowed down.

"Get up." I said.

"With all due respect princess, if I don't get what I came for the fire nation will burn this place to rubble." He said.

"Get out!" I said angrily. Aang blew slapped him with some air.

"You're leaving empty handed." Aang said.

"Then the destruction of this temple will be on your head! Goodbye avatar, goodbye princess." He said, he was lowered down the trap door. Aang closed it angrily.

"Princess?!" Teo asked.

"Okay, fire nation was an understatement; I am princess Hotaru of the fire nation." I said nervously.

Next we prepared for battle. We were on a bridge outside chatting.

"This is bad." Sokka said,

"Oh really, I never knew." I said sarcastically.

"Aang, what're we gonna do?" Katara asked "How can we possible keep them all away?"

"I'll tell you how, we have something they don't, air power, we control the skies, that's something the fire nation can't do, we can win." Aang said.

"I want to help." The mechanist said.

"Good, we'll need it." Aang said.

"We finally got the war balloon working thanks to Sokka," we were now in the mechanist's design room "This boy's a genius." The mechanist said.

"Thank you, you're a genius." Sokka said.

"Thank you." The mechanist said.

"You see, the old problem for the war balloon was you could get it air born but once you did it would just keep going, you could put a hole in the top but then all the hot air would escape, so the question became how do you keep a lid on hot air?" Sokka asked.

"Ugh, if only we knew." Katara said. I laughed along with her and Aang and Teo.

"A lid is actually the answer, if you control the hot air, you control the war balloon." Sokka said.

"Hmm, that's actually pretty smart." I said.

"Okay, you got four kinds of bombs, smoke, slime, fire and-"Sokka said.

"Stink!" the mechanist finished off "Never underestimate the power of stink!" We got ready on the balcony of the temple, with our gliders.

"They're coming!" A little girl said. I looked over the edge of the railing.

"I can stop a few from here if they get too close?" I asked.

"That would be good." Aang said.

"Good luck Teo." I said.

"Good luck." He smiled.

"Pfff, don't need it." I said. Teo laughed and waved, then all the gliders left. I saw nothing because we were above the clouds while the others were below the clouds. All of a sudden chains shot from the clouds and hooked onto the mountain. Up the chains came massive tanks with spiky wheels and bulky defensive bodies. I threw as many fire balls as I could but they didn't do anything at all! None of our bombs did anything either. Aang managed to blow a few back so they went upside down but then they're bodies turned around so that they were the right way up again, then they carried on. I saw Katara and Teo talking, she yelled up to me.

"Water bending is key!" she yelled. I nodded and jumped down, I came to a rolling stop in front of the tanks. Katara was dropped off by Oppa. I ran next to Aang and Katara and water bended the same as Katara. We froze the tanks in water, which stopped them. But there were so many of them. Inside the tanks there were fire benders that blasted fire at us. I defended with fire bending, Aang with air bending and Katara with water bending. There were two heading straight for us when Oppa fended them off and let us climb on his saddle. We ran up and flew to where Teo was.

"We're out of bombs!" Teo exclaimed.

"Come on Sokka, we need the war balloon." Katara said. As if on cue the war balloon appeared behind Katara, it was massive and had massive slime bombs tied to the bottom of it. The fire benders weren't attacking it because of the fire bender sign on the side of the balloon; it was originally made for the fire nation. Sokka dropped the bombs onto the soldiers and tanks. There were still more soldiers when the war balloon ran out of bombs. I saw Sokka removing the fuel source for the balloon. It was dropped into crack in the ground. I gasped; I knew what they were doing.

"Everybody get down!" I yelled. Suddenly there was the biggest explosion I had ever seen. Black smoke billowed all around us. When the smoke cleared all the tanks were gone and the remaining soldiers were retreating.

"They're retreating!" Aang yelled to everybody. Everybody cheered.

"We're going down!" Sokka yelled, the air balloon fell down; their fuel source was gone so they couldn't fly.

"Hold on Sokka!" Katara yelled. Aang flew down with his glider. Sokka threw his boomerang and some rope around Aang's foot, him and the mechanist were hauled out of the air balloon and brought back to safety.

"You know what, I'm really glad that all you guys live here now, I realised its like he hermit crab, maybe you weren't born here but you found this empty shell and made it your home and now you protect each other." Aang said.

"That means a lot coming from you." Teo said.

"Aang, you were right about air power, as long as we've got the skies then we'll have the fire nation on the run!" Sokka said. Everybody cheered. Teo asked me to come to the side with him. We looked out over the mountains.

"I was wondering, you need to leave soon but when we see each other again then would you-uh-um-would you-uh-"he started.

"I would love to go on a date with you." I said.

"Cool." He said.


	18. Chapter 18

We were almost at the North Pole! Oppa was really tired. "I don't mean to complain, but can't Oppa fly any higher?!" Sokka said, Oppa's feet were skimming the water.

"I have an idea! Why don't we all get on your back and you can fly us to the North Pole!" Aang said angrily.

"I'd love to, climb on everyone! Sokka's ready for take off!" Sokka said. Momo ran and sat on Sokka's back, I laughed at Sokka's unimpressed face.

"Look, we're all just a little tired and cranky because we've been flying for two days straight." Katara said calmly.

"And for what?! We can't even find the northern water tribe, there's nothing up here." Sokka said, I looked around, water as far as the eye could see and random jagged ice sticking out of the ground. I sighed angrily, I slipped out my knife and looked at it, I really needed a new one, it was rusty and blunt. Suddenly a wall of ice washed in front of us and formed ice. I put my knife away and held on to Oppa's saddle for safety. Ice shot at us from every direction, Aang had to turn very sharply to dodge them, and consequently Sokka, Katara and I were almost thrown off of Oppa's saddle. Eventually Oppa's foot was caught and we spun forward and landed in the water. Then Ice came and froze Oppa. Boats came in with people on them.

"They're water benders?" I said.

"We found the water tribe!" Katara exclaimed. We were freed from the ice and taken to the city.

"There it is!" Aang said excitedly when he saw it.

"The Northern Water Tribe." Katara said in admiration.

"We're finally here." Sokka said.

"Good, I'm tired." I scoffed. There was a massive ice wall with the symbol of water engraved into it. Water benders on the boats opened a door in the ice. Oppa swam through the tunnel, we ended up in a square on top of a thin layer of water. Water benders on the edge of the square bent water into the square, the water rose up and we were let into the city.

"I can't believe how many water benders live up here." Katara said.

"We'll find a master no problem." Aang said. The buildings were massive and very beautiful, it was amazing. Canals ran between all the ice houses and ice buildings. People ran to the edges to see Aang. He smiled and waved at all the beaming faces.

"This is beautiful." I said in awe. That night there was a big feast held in out honour, there were drummers and performers and food. We were sitting in front of everybody with the chief and his family. Sadie was fed lots of fish and Oppa had his own load of food.

"Tonight, we celebrate the arrival of out brother and sisters from the southern tribe and they have brought with them someone very special, someone who many of us believed disappeared from the world until now, the avatar!" the chief announced, Aang waved while everybody clapped and cheered. "We also celebrate my daughter's sixteenth birthday, Princess Yue is now of marrying age!"

"Thank you father." Princess Yue said. I saw Sokka gawking at her, I had to stifle a laugh, someone has a crush. "May the great ocean and moon spirits watch over us during these troubled times." Yue said.

"Now, master Paku and his students will perform!" The chief announced. An old man and two young boys water bended. The water was pulled out of three jugs and streams spiralled around each other. I looked at Aang and Katara, they looked equally impressed, the same as me, we clapped and cheered for them. The performer's water circled around them in steady streams before they joined together and passed from performer to performer. Sokka and I stuffed our mouths, Yue came and sat down next Sokka.

"Hi there." Sokka flirted "Sokka, southern water tribe."

"Very nice to meet you." Yue smiled; there was then a very awkward silence between the two.

"Soooo, Uhhhh, you're a princess, huh?!" Sokka spoke "You know, back in my village, I'm kind of like a prince myself."

"HA, prince of what?!" Katara asked.

"A lot of things!" Sokka retorted "Do you mind, I'm trying to have a conversation here."

"My apologies prince Sokka." Katara said sarcastically while bowing.

"So, it looks like I'm gonna be in town for a while, I'm thinking maybe we could do an activity together?" Sokka asked.

"Do an activity?" Yue asked.

"Very smooth." I said. Aang was introduced to Master Paku.

"Master Paku, meet your newest student, the avatar." The chief said, Aang bowed to Master Paku.

"Just because you're destined to save the world, don't expect any special treatment." Paku said sourly.

"My friends and I can't wait to start training with you, after we relax for a couple of days." Aang said.

"If you want to relax then I suggest visiting a tropical island, if not I'll see you all at sunrise goodnight." Paku said before walking away, I already hated him. The chief shrugged.

When dawn came we walked to where we would be training. "I've been waiting for this day my whole life!" Katara said happily.

"I've been looking forward to it since I met that spirit." I said.

"I finally get to learn from a real water bending master!" Katara said. We walked up the steps and saw Master Paku training, he looked like he was concentrating.

"Good morning master Paku!" Aang yelled.

"No, please, march right in, I'm not concentrating or anything." Paku said.

"These are my friends, Katara and Hotaru." Aang said "These are the ones I told you about."

"I'm sorry, I think there's been a misunderstanding, you didn't tell me your friends were girls. In our tribe it is forbidden for women to learn water bending." Paku said. I could see Katara was angry but I was filled with pure rage.

"What do you mean you won't teach us?!" Katara asked. "We did not travel across the entire world to be told no!"

"No." Paku said.

"But there must be other female water benders in your tribe?" I asked through gritted teeth, I was trying really hard not to punch a hole through that ignorant old man.

"Here, the women learn from Yugoda to use their water bending to heal, I'm sure she would be happy to take you as her students, despite your bad attitudes." Paku said.

"I don't want to heal, I want to fight!" Katara yelled.

"I can see that, but our tribe has customs, rules." Paku said.

"Well your rules stink!" I yelled.

"Yeah," Aang said "They're not fair, if you won't teach these two then."

"Then what?" Paku asked.

"Then I won't learn from you!" Aang said, he stormed off.

"Well have fun teaching yourself, I'm sure you'll do a great job." Paku said. Katara ran over to Aang.

"You're lucky I haven't chi blocked you." I snarled.

"What on earth is _chi blocking_?" Paku asked.

"I can take your bending away for a certain amount of time." I stated. Paku laughed.

"I would stop you before you could even touch me." Paku said.

"Oh pleases, I'm one of the best fighters." I said. "Jerk." I muttered under my breath before following Katara to the healer's hut. We walked into the hut and saw a few little girls sitting around a test dummy that Yugoda was healing.

"Um, hi, are you Yugoda?" Katara asked.

"Are you two here for the healing lesson?" Yugoda asked.

"I guess we are." Katara said glumly. We sat down on the floor and learnt healing, it was so boring though, I'd much rather be kicking Paku's butt. After the lesson Katara and I went over to Yugoda. "Thanks for the lesson." Katara thanked.

"So who's the lucky boy?" Yugoda asked Katara.

"Huh?" Katara asked.

"Your betrothal necklace, you're getting married right?" Yugoda asked. I looked at Katara; it was her mother's necklace Yugoda was talking about.

"Oh, no, I don't think I'm ready for that yet. My grandmother gave my mother this necklace and my mother passed it down to me." Katara explained, Yugoda studied the necklace closer.

"I recognise this carving, I don't know why I didn't realise sooner, you're the spitting image of Kanna." Yugoda said.

"Wait, how do you know my Grangran's name?" Katara asked, she seemed very surprised.

"When I was about your age I was friends with Kanna, she was born here, in the Northern Tribe." Yugoda said.

"She never told me." Katara said.

"Your grandmother had an arranged marriage with a young water bender, he carved that necklace for her." Yugoda said.

"If Grangran was engaged why did she leave?" Katara asked.

"I don't know, that's always been a mystery to me, she left without saying goodbye." Yugoda said. That night we went home, still unhappy with Paku. We sat down on our beds and relaxed.

"How's warrior training going?" Katara asked Sokka, he kicked his bag and fell to the floor.

"That bad?" Aang asked.

"No, it's princess Yue, I don't get it, one minute she wants to go out with me and the next she's telling me to get lost." Sokka said. "Anyway, how's water bending training going?" Sokka asked.

"Master Poophead won't teach them because they're girls." Aang said.

"Why don't you just teach them Aang?" Sokka asked.

"Why didn't I think of that? At night, you can teach us whatever moves you learn from Master Paku, that way, you have someone to practice with and we get to learn water bending, everyone's happy!" Katara said. I smiled and nodded.

"I'm not happy." Sokka said.

"But you're never happy." I said.

"Come on Aang." Katara said. We ran out the door and to one of the river streams.

"Master Paku said this move is all about sinking and floating." Aang said, he passed some orbs of water to us.

"I got it!" Katara said, she managed to do the move, she gave me a tip on doing it and I managed to get it as well. Suddenly the water went very fast and skilfully around Katara.

"That was amazing!" Aang said.

"That wasn't me." Katara said, we looked to where the water went. It was a very angry looking Master Paku.

"I was just showing them a few moves." Aang said.

"You have disrespected me, my teachings and my entire culture." Paku snarled.

Aang said "I'm sorry, I-"

"You are no longer welcome as my student." Paku growled. We went home and thought over our plan, we then went to the 'council' of the northern water tribe. We told the chief our story.

"What do you want me to do, force Master Paku to take Aang back as his student?" The chief asked.

"Yes, please." Katara said.

"I suspect he might change his mind if you swallow your pride and apologise to him." The chief said. Katara frowned angrily then her expression softened, she looked back at us for reassurance.

"Fine." She said.

"I'm waiting little girl." Paku said smugly.

"NO! NO WAY AM I APOLOGISING TO A SOUR OLD MAN LIKE YOU!" Katara yelled, she was cracking the ice behind her in anger, at least it wasn't me getting angry, would you prefer angry water bending or angry fire bending? Even jugs split open around us and water poured out of them.

"Uh, Katara?" Aang said.

"I'll be waiting outside if you're man enough to fight me!" Katara snarled, I gasped. She stormed out, I ran out after her and sat on a step.

"Are you crazy Katara, you're not going to win this fight?!" Sokka exclaimed after he and Aang walked out of the building.

"I know, I don't care!" Katara yelled.

"You don't have to do this for me." Aang said "I can find another teacher."

"I'm not doing it for you, someone needs to slap some sense into that guy!" Katara said.

"I just wish it could be me." I said. I saw Paku start to walk out.

"SO, you decided to show up?!" Katara asked. Paku said nothing, just walked past her. "Aren't you gonna fight?!"

"Go back to the healing huts with the rest of the other women, where you belong." He said. She held a water whip and whipped the back of his head.

"Fine, if you want to learn to fight so bad, study closely." Paku said. And with that, the fight kicked off. He made many attacks on her but she dodged or blocked them all.

"You can't knock me down!" she yelled. We all cheered and clapped for her. She then made her own attacks, these ones were powerful and looked hard to dodge, but Paku did it anyway, and like a pro too!

"Well, I'm impressed, you are an excellent water bender." Paku said.

"But you still won't teach me, will you?" She asked, her hair was messed up and her clothes were torn in different places.

"No." Paku replied. This time their attacks were more powerful and their defences were stronger as well. I watched as Katara's necklace was knocked off of her. Finally Paku sent down loads of ice shards and encased her in a prison of them. "This fight is over." He declared

"Come back here, I'm not finished yet!" Katara yelled.

"Yes, you are." Paku said. He gasped and picked her necklace off of the ground. "This is my necklace." He said.

"No its not, it's mine! Give it back!" Katara yelled.

"I made this sixty years ago, for the love of my life, for Kanna." Paku said. The ice prison melted around Katara.

"My Grangran was supposed to marry you?" Katara asked.

"I carved this necklace for your grandmother when we got engaged, I thought we would have a long happy life together, I loved her." Paku said sadly.

"But she didn't love you did she?" Katara asked "It was an arranged marriage, Grangran wouldn't let your tribe's stupid customs ruin her life, that's why she left, it must've taken a lot of courage." Katara said.

In the morning Katara and I were late for class. We ran to the place where we would be practicing. "Hey Katara, hey Hotaru!" Aang chirped.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Paku demanded. "It's past sunrise, you're late." He smiled.

"Good to see you here." Aang said.

"Good to be here." I answered, grinning from ear to ear.


	19. Chapter 19

We had been practicing for weeks, I was high up in the class but Katara was by far the best, Aang had pure talent for water bending but he didn't practice or try that hard. At this moment I was watching Katara fight a student. He made a very big snowball and threw it at Katara, she made it back into water and then pulled more water off the ground and froze him in a giant ice pillar. "Nice try pupil Sangruk, a couple more years and you might be ready to fight a sea sponge." Paku joked. "Would anyone care for a rematch against Katara?" he asked. Everyone groaned and shook their heads, she had kicked the crap out of everybody, including me. "Katara, you've advanced more quickly than any student I've ever trained, you have proven that with fierce determination, passion and hard work you can accomplish anything, raw talent alone is not enough." Paku said, he looked at Aang, who was playing with Momo. "Pupil Aang?"

"Yes Master Paku?" Aang replied.

"Care to step into the sparring circle, I figure since you've found time to play with house pets you must have already mastered water bending?" Paku replied.

"I wouldn't say mastered, but check this out!" Aang smiled, he water bended the snow on the floor around him so he was a snow man. Momo jumped on his face and knocked him down. I laughed at Aang on the floor with Momo on his face. When I got up class was over. I let out a long shrill whistle and called Sadie, apparently nobody else had really tried to tame a polar bear dog, Sadie was loving being back in a cold place, however, Patch was always snuggling into my neck or top for warmth. I took a ride around the city with Sadie for a while. Just as I was about to head home something weird happened, I looked closely at the snow, except it wasn't snow, it was soot, which meant the fire nation was nearby. I rode quickly back to where we trained and saw Aang and Katara.

"It's soot, this happened when the Fire Nation attacked my village." Katara said.

"There's a lot of them, look how much of this there is." I said, I was panicking at this point. The whole city gathered in one place.

"The day we have feared for so long has arrived, the fire nation is on our doorstep, it is with great sadness I call my family here before me, knowing well that some of these face are about to vanish from our tribe, but they will never vanish from our hearts. Now, as we approach the battle for our existence I call upon the great spirits, spirit of the ocean, spirit of the moon, be with us, I'm going to need volunteers for a dangerous mission." The chief announced.

"Count me in!" Sokka said, he stood up.

"Sokka?" Katara complained.

"Be warned, many of you will not return, come forward to receive my marking, if you accept the task." The chief warned.

"Please help him." Katara said to me. I nodded and got up, I went to the front with all the other warriors, the chief knew how skilled I was so didn't hesitate when giving me the mark. I walked and stood next to Sokka, what was he thinking?! After the ceremony I walked out and stood next to Aang and Katara.

"The stillness before battle is unbearable." The chief said.

"I wasn't there when the Fire Nation attacked my people, I'm gonna make a difference this time." Aang said confidently. The people who had received the mark stood on the front wall; I had left Sadie with the other animals and under a lot of shelter, Patch refused to leave me. The warriors were on the front wall with Katara and Aang as well. The first boat appeared on the horizon. It fired a giant ball of rock that was set on fire. It hit the wall and blew most of us off of it. More and more fire balls were hurled at the city. Water benders on boats went out to deal with the ship, but it took a lot to bring down. Finally, when the first ship down hundreds more appeared on the horizon. The warriors with the mark were brought to a building where we would be told our mission.

The chief explained "Men-" I coughed "And girl, you will be infiltrating the fire nation navy, that means you will all need one of these uniforms." The chief said. The chief's son walked out wearing an awful excuse for a uniform. Sokka and I tried to stifle a laugh but it wouldn't work, we ended up laughing. We covered out mouths as the other soldiers looked around at us.

"What's your problem?!" Hahn asked.

"Fire Navy uniforms don't look like that." I said.

"Of course they do, these are real uniforms captured from actual fire nation soldiers." Hahn said.

"When, 100 years ago?" Sokka asked.

"85." The chief answered. Sokka and I walked to the front of the group.

"The fire nation doesn't wear shoulder spikes anymore." Sokka said, he plucked the shoulder spike on the son.

"He's right, the newer uniforms are more stream lined." I explained.

"How do we know we can trust this idiot and that little girl? Such bold talk for new recruits." Hahn said, I was about to storm forward in anger but Sokka grabbed my elbow and pulled me back.

"Sokka and Hotaru are from our sister tribe Hahn, they are capable warriors and value their input." The chief said. Sokka grinned smugly at Hahn. "Now, our first objective is to determine the identity of their commanding officer."

"His name is Zhao, Admiral Zhao, we've run into him a few times." I said.

"Middle aged, big sideburns, bigger temper." Sokka explained.

"He throws the best tantrums." I added.

"Sokka, Hotaru, I want to tell everything you know to Hahn. He is leading this mission, Hahn; show Sokka and Hotaru your respect, I expect nothing less from my future son in law." The chief said. Sokka gawped.

"Princess Yue is marrying you?!" Sokka asked angrily.

"Yeah, what of it?" Hahn asked.

"Nothing, congratulations." Sokka said glumly. I rubbed his arm supportively. While we were readying our weapons and the fake Fire Navy uniforms we felt the rumbling of fire balls hitting the city. When it was almost night time the rumbling stopped, I guessed they were afraid to face water benders in an almost full moon.

"Let me tell you something Sokka, I've courted a lot of girls but Yue is the finest and she comes with the most perks." Hahn said, I just wanted to slap that grin off of his face.

"Perks?! What does that mean?!" Sokka exclaimed.

"I mean, Yue's nice and everything but the points I'll score with the chief aren't bad either." Hahn said.

"Princess Yue is wasted on a self absorbed weasel like you!" Sokka yelled.

"Whoa, hang on, what do you care?" Hahn asked "You're just a simple root from the southern tribe, what would you know about the political complexities of our life, no offence." Hahn grinned. I carefully reached over and grabbed all the sharp things away from Sokka.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" Sokka yelled, he tackled Hahn to the ground. "You're just a jerk without a soul! NO OFFENCE!" Sokka yelled, he was on top of Hahn; they then rolled over so that Hahn was on top.

"Someone stop them!" the chief yelled. I walked over to the two idiots and jabbed at certain points and nerves along their bodies. They fell limp and stopped moving. "What did you do?" the chief asked.

"Chi blocking, it's only temporary." I said.

"Sokka, you're off the mission." The chief said "Hotaru, stay with him and make sure he doesn't do anything else stupid, that is your mission." He said, I nodded.

"Alright, fall in men, everybody listen to what I say and we'll take out this admiral choa in no time." Hahn said.

"It's admiral Zhao!" Sokka yelled. I grabbed the scruff of his jumped and dragged him along to where the others were.

"The legends say that the moon was the first water bender, our ancestors saw how it pushed and pulled the tides and learned how to do it themselves." Yue said.

"I've always noticed my water bending was stronger at night." Katara said.

"Our strength comes from the spirit of the moon, our life comes from the spirit of the ocean, they work together to keep balance." Yue said.

"The spirits! Maybe I can find them and get their help!" Aang said.

"How can you do that?" Yue asked.

"The avatar is the bridge between our world and the spirit world, Aang can talk to them." Katara said.

"Maybe they'll give you the wisdom to win this battle?" Yue said happily.

"Or maybe they'll unleash a crazy amazing spirit attack on the fire nation?!" Aang yelled.

"I like that one." I said. Katara and Yue's faces were blank.

"Or wisdom, that's god too." Aang said.

"The only problem is, last time you got to the spirit world by accident, how are you going to get there this time?" Katara asked.

"I have an idea." Yue said "Follow me." She started walking away with us in tow. We were taken to a very small wooden door in a wall.

"So is this the way to the spirit world?" Aang asked. Yue laughed.

"No, you'll have to get there on your own." Yue smiled "But I can take you to the most spiritual place in the entire North Pole." We then went through the door and found a small pond surrounded with grass and then the grass was surrounded by more water. Aang laughed with me and then we both ran to the grass and rolled around in it.

"I never thought that I'd miss grass this much!" Aang said.

"It's so warm in here." I said happily, I liked warm, I'm not really a dangerous ice tundra kind of girl. I took off my jacket for the first time. "How is it possible?" Katara asked.

"It's the centre of all spiritual energy in our land." Yue answered. In the pond were two fish, one was white with a black dot on it and one was black with a white dot on it.

"You're right Yue, I can feel something." Aang said.

"I can feel it too." I said.

"It's so tranquil." Aang said. He sat down and got into his meditating position. I looked around and realised that Sokka was gone, oh well.

"Why is he sitting like that?" Yue asked, I tried to get her and Katara to be quiet but they wouldn't have it.

"He's meditating, trying to cross over into the spirit world, it takes all his concentration." Katara said.

"Is there any way we can help?" Yue asked.

"How about some quiet?! Come on guys, I can hear every word you're saying!" Aang yelled. I saw him looking intently into the pool, and then all of a sudden his arrows and eyes started to glow.

"Is he okay?!" Yue gasped.

"He's crossing into the spirit world; he'll be fine as long as we don't move his body." Katara said. "That's his way back to the physical boy." Katara said.

"Maybe we should get some help." Yue said.

Katara replied "No, he's my friend; I'm perfectly capable of protecting him."

"Well, aren't you a big girl now." I heard a very familiar voice say.

"No." Katara said. I looked around and saw my brother, his face was cut and bruised.

"Yes." Zuko said "Hand him over and I won't have to hurt you."

"Hotaru." Katara said.

"Right!" I replied. We got into our fighting stance, we were going to water bend together, so we were stronger. First of all Zuko jumped into the air and kicked some fire at us. We brought water up from the pools and blocked every attack. We then hit him back with a strong wave, he fell face down to the floor.

"I see you've learned a new trick, but I didn't come this far to lose to you." He said. He punched a ball of fire at us, we blocked it before pushing him back and freezing him to the floor, then we moved our arms in circular movements and encased him in a ball of ice. When we were done I let out a breath, it was hard work doing this. "You little peasants, you've found a master, haven't you." Zuko said, he used breath of fire to make the ball explode.

"Don't call me a peasant!" I yelled. Katara and I upped our game but so did he, the attacks came quicker from him and we sent more powerful attacks in his direction. Suddenly it became a close range battle. When he attacked to one side we blocked, he ran around the other way and grabbed Aang's shirt. We blasted him away with a big torrent of water; we then pressed him against the wall and froze him in ice. I looked up as the sun started to rise, I chewed my lip, this was bad. Zuko looked up as the sun hit his face; he snarled and breathed out, the ice melted. Katara and I had started to walk in different directions. I looked around as he sent a very powerful blast at Katara. "KATARA!" I yelled. I looked back to him and growled.

"You rise with the moon, I rise with the sun." he said to her.

"So do I." I said, he looked around as I kicked fire at him, he was knocked back, but he took it into close range, good. We were both very skilled in close combat, but I had always been. I jabbed at points along his body, chi blocking. Zuko lost his bending temporarily but he was fine without it, suddenly I felt a sharp pain in the side of my head, he had kicked me, very hard. I flew back against the wall, I tried to stay awake but it wouldn't work, I blacked out.

I was roughly shaken awake by Katara "Aang's gone!" she said. I saw that Momo, Oppa, Sokka and Yue were here.

"How could I let this happen?!" I yelled.

"It wasn't your fault, I failed too." Katara said.

"Where did they go?" I asked.

"I don't know." Sokka answered.


	20. Chapter 20

I felt rumbling around me as the fire nation continued their attack. "I can't believe I lost him." Katara said.

"You did everything you could." I said.

"Now we have to do everything we can to get him back." Sokka said "Zuko can't have gotten far, we'll find him, Aang's gonna be fine." I smiled and nodded, Katara wiped away her tears. Momo was whining.

"It's alright, you stay here Momo." Katara said. I ran out of the spiritual pools and ran towards where Sadie was being kept. I grabbed a very thick jacket and made sure Patch was comfy inside before I left, we followed Oppa so that I could get a view on the ground, and there was a massive blizzard so it would have wiped away any tracks. After a while Oppa landed, it was too hard for him to carry on flying. After a few minutes they got back onto Oppa and flew again. After about half an hour of fruitless searching I saw a white light, it was probably Aang, I watched and saw that Oppa had gone towards the light that ended in a cave.

"Come on girl!" I said, Sadie ran as fast as she could against the blizzard. I watched as I saw Aang fly out of the hole of the cave. Zuko ran out after him and grabbed him. "Get him!" I yelled, Sadie jumped on top of Zuko and pinned him down. I saw Katara come off of Oppa. Sadie got off of Zuko, he prepared to fight.

"Here for a rematch?" he asked Katara.

"Trust me, its not gonna be much of a match." Katara said. She blocked an attack easily before lifting him up in an ice pillar and then slamming him down on the floor, he passed out. Sokka undid the ropes tying Aang.

"Hey, this is some quality rope." He said.

"We need to get to the oasis, the spirits are in trouble!" Aang said. We got onto Oppa's saddle, this included Sadie and I. We were about to leave.

"Wait." I said.

"What?" Sokka asked.

"We can't leave him there." I said.

"Why not?" Sokka asked.

"He's my brother!" I said angrily. Aang nodded and jumped down, he got Zuko onto Oppa's saddle, Zuko was freezing. I took a deep breath in and when I let it out I released a load of warm air, which warmed everybody up.

"This makes sense, bring the guy who's constantly trying to kill us." Sokka said sarcastically.

As we were flying back Yue asked "Brother?"

"Yeah, Prince Zuko is my brother." I answered.

"Wait, that means…." She did finish.

"Yes, Fire Lord Ozai is my father and I am the Princess of the Fire Nation and all that stuff." I said.

"Oh, okay." She said, I laughed; nobody had really been as comfortable around me when they find out that I'm fire nation. When we were almost back something frightening happened, the moon went red and bathed the land in its blood bath. Yue held her head, as if she was in pain.

"Are you okay?" Sokka asked.

"I feel faint." She answered.

"I feel it too." Aang said, he rubbed his head and got back to flying "The moon spirit is in trouble."

"I owe the moon spirit my life." Yue said.

"What do you mean?" Sokka asked.

"When I was born I was very sick and very weak. Most babies cry when they're born but I was born as if I was asleep, my eyes closed. Our healers did everything they could, they told my mother and father I was going to die. My father pleaded with the spirits to save me, that night, beneath the full moon he brought me to the oasis and placed me in the pond. My dark hair turned white, I opened my eyes and began to cry and they knew I would live. That's why my mother named me Yue, it means moon." Yue explained.

When we got there I had to stifle a laugh when I saw Momo attacking Zhao, my grin faded as I saw that he was holding a bag, the bag was moving. I looked down into the pond and saw only one fish, swimming wildly around, as if it didn't know what to do. The fire benders behind Zhao got ready to attack, so did we. Sokka and I grabbed out weapons and Aang held his staff.

"Don't bother." Zhao said. He held his fist up, ready to attack what was in the bag.

"Zhao, don't." Aang said, he dropped his staff.

"It's my destiny, to destroy the moon and the water tribe." Zhao said.

"Destroying the moon won't hurt just the water tribe, it will hurt everyone, including you." Aang said calmly. I was beginning to get angry, if he destroyed the moon so help me I will kill him and finally wipe the grin from his face. "Without the moon, everything would fall out of balance, you have no idea what kind of chaos that would unleash on the world." Aang said.

"He is right Zhao." I heard a familiar voice say from behind us.

"General Iroh." Zhao said scornfully "Why am I not surprised to discover your treachery."

"I'm no traitor Zhao, the fire nation needs the moon too." Iroh said "We all depend on the balance. Whatever you do to that spirit I'll unleash on you tenfold! LET IT GO NOW!" He yelled, his eyes were full of desperate rage. Zhao's mouth was fixed into a snarl, then his expression softened, he knelt down and put the fish back into the water, the moon went back to its normal colour. I gasped as Zhao then sliced fire at the spirit. I looked up at the sky and saw the moon, but then, it disappeared from the sky. Everything went gray, everything was silent. I then saw Iroh deliver his promise, he blasted fire constantly at Zhao, the fire benders try to stop Iroh but he knocked them out quickly. I saw Zhao stumble away, like he was confused. I looked in the pond and almost started crying, the dead moon spirit fish floated in the water, while the ocean spirit circled it. Patch backed away from everything, as if anything could hurt him. Iroh lifted the dead fish out of the water and held it in his hands.

"There's no hope now, it's over." Yue cried.

"No, it's not over." I heard Aang growl. I looked around at Aang, his tattoos were glowing, he looked mad. Aang walked into the middle of the pool and all of a sudden he was sucked down into it. The water around the oasis glowed blue; it then spread to the rest of the city and released an ominous blue glow. The water flowed to the edge of the oasis before rising off of the ground and forming a massive fish monster thing, it was amazing and looked very capable of destroying the whole fire nation in one go. In the middle of the body was Aang, he was still glowing. I watched as the water tribe members bowed down and the fire nation soldiers were washed away. I looked back to the oasis and saw Iroh put the fish back into the water; there was still a spark of hope in his eyes.

"It's too late." Katara said "It's dead." I fell to the floor with weak knees. Iroh looked at Yue and raised his eyebrow.

"You have been touched by the moon spirit; some of its life is in you." Iroh said.

"Yes, you're right." Yue said sadly "It gave me life, maybe I can give it back."She stood up and pulled away from Sokka.

"No, you don't have to do that!" Sokka pleaded.

"It's my duty Sokka." Yue answered, she didn't have the heart to look him in the eye.

"I won't let you." He said. "You're father told me to protect you."

"I have to do this." She said, she pulled her hand out of his, he let go lamely, now he was the one with no hope. Iroh held the dead fish in his hands one more time. Yue let her hands hover over the fish's body. The fish glowed a radiant light blue, when the light she breathed her last breath and fell down, Sokka caught her right before she hit the floor.

"No!" he yelled. He looked at her "She's gone." He said lamely before hugging her lifeless body to the floor. I watched through tears as her body faded into nothing. The fish started glowing again, Iroh slipped it gently back into the water, the whole pool shimmered and glowed, the glowing rose off of the water and formed a shape, a person, Princess Yue!

"Goodbye Sokka, I'll always be with you." She said, she leant down and kissed him, for the last time. Sokka looked broken. I looked in the sky as the moon came back, the grass looked greener, the water looked bluer, and hope returned. I smiled as the battle we had fought was over, and we won.

"I've decided to go to the South Pole." Paku said. It was the morning after battle, but we weren't cheering about the things we won, we were mourning the things we lost. "Some other benders and healers want to join me, it's time we helped rebuild our sister tribe."

"What about Aang?" Katara asked "He still needs to learn water bending."

"Well, then he better get used to calling you _master _Katara." Paku said "And Hotaru, make sure he doesn't drown."

"Sure thing Master Paku." I said. I walked over to Aang with Katara, he looked even more shaken up than the rest of us. We looked at each other and then dived into a group hug. I saw Momo looking at us and grinned "Okay, you too Momo."I said.

"Come here." Aang laughed. Momo jumped onto Aang and sat on his shoulder while Patch sat on my shoulder. I looked at the others and thought to myself 'So what we're different nations, we're family, and I'm happy.'


	21. Chapter 21

We had been in the North Pole, training our butts off, then it was time to leave, we said goodbye to all of our new found friends and got on a boat with Master Paku and some others that were going to the South Pole. I was asleep when I heard moving, I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, I saw Aang climbing up the ladder to get on deck. "Aang?" I heard Katara asked. We followed Aang up and saw him looking at the stars.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked.

"Nah, it's just a nightmare." Aang replied. "I was in the avatar state, but I was outside of my body, just watching myself, it was scary…I was scary." He said sadly. We put our hands on his shoulders.

"We'll stay up here for now, it's almost sunrise anyway." I said. He nodded thankfully. We spent the next hour just looking at the sky and waves and thinking, not really about anything, just thinking. In the morning we were greeted by master Paku.

"Katara, I want you to have this," he held up a container, it had a moon on the lid and looked very fancy "This amulet contains water from the spirit oasis, the water has unique properties, don't lose it." He said.

"Thank you master Paku." Katara said, she hugged him.

"Aang, these scrolls will help you master water bending, but remember, they're no substitute for a real master." Paku gave him a box with the water tribe symbol on it; he slid back the lid and saw a lot of scrolls. Aang bowed and walked away.

"Hotaru, my tribe has no use for these; I hope they will help you learn." Paku said, he handed me a box like Aang's but this one had a fire nation symbol on the top, I slid back the lid and saw not as many scrolls, there were about five, but I loved it anyway. "I know it's not much so I also have this for you." He held out a knife in a sheath, I took out the knife and stared in awe at a brand new Whale's tooth scimitar, I hugged Paku.

"I love them, thank you Master." I said, I had been meaning to get a new knife but I had never got around to it. I put the stuff in my bag and got Sadie onto Oppa's saddle, I then got onto the saddle myself.

"Sokka, take care son." Paku said, he patted Sokka on the shoulder. I laughed at Sokka's expression, he had been expecting a gift. Sokka got onto the saddle next to us "Fly straight to the earth kingdom base to the east of here, general Fong will provide you with an escort to Omashu, there you'll be safe to begin your earth bending training with king Bumi." Paku said.

"Oppa yip yip." Aang said.

"Say hi to Grangran for me!" Katara called out.

"And the penguins!" I yelled.

I was admiring my new blade when I heard Sokka say excitedly "There it is!" I jumped up and crawled to the other end of the saddle, I smiled happily as I saw the base, it was massive and it had a big wall around it. We landed on the roof; as soon as we did Sadie jumped off and rolled around in the sun. I jumped down myself and scratched her stomach. I then stretched; we had been on Oppa for a long time.

"Welcome!" I saw someone say "Avatar Aang, I am general Fong and welcome to all of you great heroes, Oppa, Momo, Sadie, Patch, Brave Sokka, the determined Hotaru, the mighty Katara." Fong said.

"The mighty Katara, I could get used to that." Katara said. I heard bangs behind us; I turned around and saw fireworks in the air.

"Not bad." Sokka complemented. We were brought inside to talk to general Fong; we sat on the floor in front of him.

"Avatar Aang, we are all impressed with the stories we've heard about you single handedly wiping out an entire Fire navy fleet at the North Pole." General Fong said, he was stroking his beard "I'm not sure what it feels like to wield such devastating power, it's an awesome responsibility."

"I try not think about it too much." Aang said.

"Avatar, you're ready to face the fire lord now." General Fong said.

"WHAT?!" Aang and I yelled, Aang because he needed to fight the fire lord and me because I knew how powerful father was.

"No I'm not." Aang said.

"Aang still needs to master all four elements." Katara said.

"Why? With the kind of power he possesses, power enough to destroy hundreds of battle ships in a matter of minutes, he could defeat the fire lord now!" General Fong said.

"But sir, the thing is, Aang can only do those things when he's in the avatar state." Sokka said.

Aang started to explain "See, it's this special state where I-"

"I'm well aware." Fong interrupted. "Your eyes and tattoos glow and you're able to summon unbelievable power. Without you we'd be slaughtered before we even reached their shores, but with you leading the way, as the ultimate weapon, we can cut a swath right through to the heart of the fire nation." He said.

"Right, but, I don't know how to get in our out of the avatar state, much less what to do when I'm there." Aang said.

"So it's decided then, I'll help you figure out how to get into the avatar state and then you'll face your destiny." General Fong said.

"No, nothing's decided, we already have a plan, Aang's going to do things his way!" I said angrily, we all stood up.

"Well, while you take your time learning the elements the war goes on, may I show you something?" General Fong asked, I didn't have a good feeling about this. We walked to the window and saw outside, we saw the infirmary. There were lots of soldiers; many had gaping wounds or broken limbs. "That's the infirmary, and those soldiers are the lucky ones, they came back. Every day the Fire Nation takes lives, people are dying Aang! You could end it, now! Think about it." General Fong said. We spent the rest of the day touring the base, it was very impressive, after we went to sleep, and it was comfy. I went to sleep away, I'm not sure about the others though, and the only thing that I was worried about was that Aang had agreed to fight the Fire Lord. I was woken up by Katara.

"Aang, no, you can't do this!" she said.

"Sure he can, didn't you see when he defeated the fire navy, he was incredible!" Sokka said.

"Aang, there's a right way to do this, practice study and discipline." Katara said.

"Or just glow it up and stop that fire lord." Sokka said.

"You two meatheads everything we've worked for then fine, just go and 'glow it up!' see how it works out for ya!" I said angrily before walking out of the room with Katara.

"Katara, Hotaru, I'm just being realistic, I don't have time to do this the right way." Aang called. I rolled my eyes and ignored him.

The next morning we got to testing. "This chi enhancing tea is a natural stimulant, in an ordinary warrior enhances strength and energy tenfold." The tea maker said, he poured out a small amount of the tea in the cup. "In you, it may induce the avatar state." The tea maker finished.

"Tenfold energy huh?" Aang said, he sipped at the tea. Five minutes later…Aang was going around on an air scooter over almost everything. "Is it working, is it working, is it working, I can't tell, someone tell me when I'm in the avatar state because I don't have a good view on myself, am I talking too loud?!" he said quickly and loudly.

"I guess he could talk the fire lord to death." Sokka said. I slapped my forehead as Aang slammed into a pillar and fell off of his air scooter. After Aang had calmed down we went onto a balcony. "Maybe I can shock you into the avatar state." Sokka suggested.

"I love surprises!" Aang said. Katara closed his eyes, when she let him open them Sokka jumped forward with Momo screeching in his collar so it looked like Sokka's head was replaced with Momo's. Aang screamed like a girl and jumped backwards, so I punched his shoulder. "Still not glowing." Aang said, pointing to his tattoos. Sokka then fell over because of Momo. Next we went to a ceremony, Aang was dressed up.

"You are wearing a ceremonial piece of clothing from each of the bending nations, now I will join the four elements into one!" the preacher said. Aang looked stupid with all the clothes on. The preacher then put the elements in a bowl calling out the elements as he went. First he poured in a jug of water, then poured in a plate of dirt, then a lit torch and then he blew some air in the bowl. "Four elements together as one!" he said, he then threw the contents of the bowl over Aang.

"This is just mud." Aang said.

"So, do you feel anything?" the preacher asked. Aang put his finger up, we all leant forward in anticipation, he took a deep breath in.

"Crap." I said, I quickly grabbed Sokka and pulled him in front of me. Aang sneezed and all the mud flew over everybody, except me, I had Sokka as a shield.

"We have to find a way." General Fong said, he rubbed some mud off of his face.

That night I went straight to sleep, I don't know if I wanted to come to the Fire Nation, it would mean seeing Aang so hurt that he went into the avatar state and being back in the Fire Nation too.

"Sokka, Hotaru, wake up." Aang said.

"Huh?" Sokka asked.

"I was already awake." I said. I sat up and looked at him.

"I don't think we should be trying to bring on the avatar state." Aang said.

"You sure?" Sokka asked.

"Yes." Aang nodded.

"Okay." Sokka shrugged.

"Do you think the General will be mad?" Aang asked.

"Yes…now good night." I said before I led back down.

"What can he say, you're the avatar." Sokka said before going to sleep himself.

The next morning Aang and Sokka went straight to the general, Katara and I stayed in our room and started packing up in complete silence. After a while we heard rumbling. Momo's ears pricked up. "I wonder what crazy thing they're trying now." Katara said to us. There was a another large crash.

"Maybe we should go and check on them." I said.

"Agreed." Katara nodded. We left and went up to the balcony, I gasped at what I saw, they were attacking Aang. Aang only goes into the avatar state when he's in genuine danger; I guess they were trying that. We ran down the stairs and saw Sokka.

"What's going on?!" Katara asked.

"The general's gone crazy! He's trying to force Aang I into the avatar state!" Sokka replied. We went down and attacked the people attacking Aang, Sokka with his boomerang and Katara and I with water bending. After a while I saw lots of the big rolling stones focus on Katara and I.

"Maybe you can avoid me, but they can't." the general said. The stones closed in on us a little more. Katara whipped some water at the general but he earth bended the ground up so that the water mixed with the earth. Katara looked at me, she was asking for my fire bending, I shook my head, if this earth kingdom base found out I was a fire bender then they'd kill me without a second thought. Suddenly Katara and I sunk into the ground and were stuck there; it was earth bending, again!

"I can't move!" Katara yelled to Aang.

"Neither can I!" I panicked.

"Don't hurt them!" Aang yelled. He jumped down and blew wind at the general; he blocked it with a wall of earth. Katara and I were sucked further into the ground.

"Katara!" Sokka yelled. He tried running at the general, who, in turn, flicked him away.

"Stop this! You have to let them go!" Aang yelled, he pulled on the general's arm.

"You could save them if you were in the avatar state." The general said.

"I'm trying!" Aang cried "I'm trying." I saw tears appear in his eyes.

"Aang, we're sinking!" Katara yelled, we were sucked further into the ground.

"I don't see glowing." The general said. Katara and I were sucked into the ground so that only our heads were visible.

"Please!" I whined.

"You don't need to do this!" Aang begged, he fell to his knees.

"Apparently, I do." The general said. Katara and I were sucked fully into the ground, it was just black, is this what death is like? It was like this, silent and dark, for a while before I felt something; I was pulled through the ground and came back to earth. I started panting; it was hard to breath underground. "That was just a trick to trigger the avatar state and it worked!" the general yelled, I looked up, I saw Aang high up in the air, he was in the avatar state. Suddenly Aang smashed back down to the floor and destroyed almost everything, almost meant everything apart from Sokka, Katara and I. Aang then just stood there in his avatar state.

Suddenly Aang calmed down and he fell down again, he looked around sorrowfully, he looked at all the destroyed huts and at the broken floor and cradled his knees to his chest. Katara and I ran over to him and hugged him.

"I'm sorry." He said softly "I hope you never have to see me like that again."

"HAH! Are you joking, that was almost perfect, we just have to find out a way to control you when you're like that!" the general said.

"You're out of your mind." Aang said.

"I guess we'll find out on the way to the fire nation." He said. Sokka came up behind him and wacked him on the head with his club, the general passed out and fell to the ground.

"Anybody got a problem with that?" Sokka asked all the defeated soldiers. Everyone shook their heads quickly.

"Do you still want an escort to Omashu?" one of the soldiers asked. We looked at each other.

"I think we're all set." I said. We then left on Oppa, that general was completely insane.


	22. Chapter 22

"I can't believe it." Aang said. I pressed my fingers to my necklace.

"I told Oma I'd help protect this city." I said sadly.

"I knew the war had spread far but Omashu always seemed untouchable." Aang said.

"Up until now it was." Sokka said "Now Ba Sing Se is the only great earth kingdom stronghold left."

"This is horrible but we have to move on." Katara said regretfully.

"No, I'm going in to find Bumi." Aang said.

Sokka put his hand up "Aang stop, we don't know if Bumi's even still-"

"What? If he's still what?" Aang asked angrily.

"Uh, around." Sokka said.

"Nice save." I said sarcastically.

"I know you had your heart set on Bumi but there are other people who can teach you earth bending." Katara said.

"This isn't about finding a teacher, this is about finding my friend." Aang said firmly.

"And that's why I'm going to help." I said.

"Really?!" Aang asked.

"Of course." I smiled. We rode Oppa down to a place below the city so we could avoid the main gates. I was leaving Sadie with Oppa but Patch was coming with me.

"A secret passage?" Sokka asked "Why didn't we just use this last time?" Aang was trying to pry the lid off of the pipe. When he did open it loads of mucky and stinky water poured out.

"I'm guessing that's why." I grinned. We climbed in and walked up the pipe, Aang used air bending to keep the water off of him, Katara and I used water bending and Sokka couldn't avoid it, he was covered in it by the time we got to the top. "No more secret passages!" I yelled angrily. Aang opened the man hole and jumped up, I came up next and pulled the other two up.

"That wasn't as bad as I thought." Katara said, suddenly Sokka came through the hole; he was groaning and covered in green slime so you couldn't actually see him. Katara soaked him with water from a barrel and then Aang dried him off with air bending, which made all his hair and clothes fly back.

"What, you don't want to use bending on me?" Sokka asked me.

"I could set you on fire?" I asked.

"Okay, okay." He said. I saw something on his cheeks and laughed, the creatures squiggled, he screamed and tried to yank them off. "THEY WON'T LET GO!" he yelled. Aang tackled him to shut him up. I walked over to them and tickled the little octopuses on the head, they then let go by themselves.

"You can't just yank them off." I said.

"Yeah, and be quiet!" Aang whispered angrily.

"They're purple pentapus." I said. Aang nodded in agreement, he and Sokka followed my example and got the rest off.

"You're so good with animals." Sokka said in relief.

"I know." I shrugged. From the purple pentapus there were spot marks where their suction cups were stuck to his skin.

"Hey, what are you doing?" I spun around and saw a guard; he was the one who asked. Aang ducked behind Sokka, Katara and I. He wrapped some cloth around his tattoo and came back up.

"What are kids doing out past curfew?" the guard asked.

"Sorry, we were just on our way home." Katara smiled uneasily. We turned around and started to walk away.

"Wait!" the guard said "What's the matter with him?" the guard was pointing to Sokka. Katara looked at the spots on his neck from the purple pentapus.

"Uh-he has…pentapox sir." Katara said. The guard walked over and examined Sokka. He went to go and touch his neck.

"Uh-sir, it's highly contagious!" I said, I hoped he bought it. I looked at Sokka and gestured to the guard, he got my gist and started stumbling around and groaning.

"Uhhhh, it's so awful…I'm dyeeiiiiing!" Sokka groaned.

"And deadly." I added.

"Hey, I think I've heard pentapox, didn't your cousin Chang die of it?" the guard asked another guard.

"We better go and wash our hands and burn our clothes!" the guard replied.

"Thank you sewer friend." Aang said, he tickled a purple pentapus. We ran through the streets and up some steps to a construction project, the place was crawling with fire nation soldiers.

"Let's find Bumi and get out of here." Katara said.

"Where would they be keeping him?" Sokka asked.

"Somewhere he can't earth bend, somewhere made of metal." Aang replied. We carried on running through the mail chutes. As we were nearing the last chute I heard rumbling. I looked up and saw two rocks heading towards people on the ground. Aang quickly swiped with his staff and destroyed the boulders, they erupted in a cloud of smoke.

"The resistance!" I saw a woman yelled, I recognised her voice, but I don't know where from. Someone through knives at Aang, I defiantly knew who that was, it was my old friend Mai, the one who taught me how to throw knives. Aang jumped out of the way and ran, we followed his lead. Two soldiers were closing in but Katara managed to whip them away with some water. Mai had now come up from the steps and was following us, I pulled up my hood, I KNEW she would recognise me! She threw some small arrows at Katara, but she pulled up a shield and blocked them. When Aang stopped I kept running with Sokka and Katara. Aang pulled down some of the construction project and stopped Mai from running. She threw a knife at Aang, he spun his staff around, it lodged into the top, right in front of his face, she was about to throw some more knives at us but I felt the ground disappear beneath me. I looked down and saw myself falling. I hit my head and fell to the ground, as I held my head I pulled myself up. I opened my eyes and saw men all around us, they all had earth kingdom robes on. We were told who they were, they were the resistance. We were brought to a hall with many others.

"So, is king Bumi with you guys?" Aang asked "Is he leading the resistance?" All the people in the hall looked at Aang.

"Of course not, on the day of the invasion we readied ourselves for battle. We were prepared to defend our city, to fight for our lives and for our freedom, but before we even had a chance, King Bumi surrendered. The day of the invasion I asked King Bumi what he wanted to do, he looked me in the eye and said 'I'm going to do…nothing!'. It doesn't matter now, fighting the fire nation is the only path to freedom and freedom is worth dying for." The leader of the resistance said.

"Actually there's another path to freedom, you could leave Omashu, you're directing all your energy to fight the fire nation but you're outnumbered. You can't win." Aang said "Now's the time to retreat so you can live to fight another day."

"You don't understand, they've taken our home and we have to fight them at any cost!" The leader said.

"I don't know Yung, living another day is starting to sound pretty good to me." Someone said.

"Yeah, I'm with the kid!" Someone else said. The crowed of people in the hall started mumbling their agreement.

"Fine, but there's thousands of citizens that need to leave, how are we gonna get them all out?" Yung asked. Sokka and I were both thinking, we then looked at each other and grinned.

"Suckers!" we both said at the same time

"You're all about to come down with a nasty case of pentapox." Sokka explained for them.

We had been down in the sewers collecting pentapus. The next morning we got to work, everyone attached the pentapus to their skin and then tickled them and they came right off, leaving the same marks as before. "The marks make you look sick but you gotta act sick too." Sokka said to everyone "You gotta sell it." An old man walked out and started groaning and stumbling around on his walking stick. "Now that's what I'm talking about!" Sokka exclaimed.

"Years of practice." The old man said.

"Okay everyone, into sick formation!" I yelled. Sokka and I followed the others but Katara and Aang stayed behind, I don't know why but they did. We walked through the town and were all groaning. We closed in on soldiers to add effect. Some people even fell over!

"PLAGUE! PLAGUE!" a soldier yelled, he and the rest of the fire nation soldiers ran away, a bell was rung on the watch tower of the wall. The gates were opened and we were let out of the city, score! We walked away to where there was cover and set up many campfires for everyone. Yung was doing a headcount when Aang came back, with a familiar animal.

"Flopsy!" I yelled, I went and hugged Flopsy's neck and was licked in turn. I laughed and went and sat back next to Sadie.

"I looked everywhere, no Bumi." Aang said sadly.

"We've got a problem, we just finished our headcount." Yung said.

"Oh no, did someone get left behind?" Katara asked.

"No, we have an extra." Yung said, he pointed to the side. I saw Momo and a baby! But not just any baby, I recognised this one!

"TOM-TOM?!" I yelled.

"You know him?" Yung asked.

"Yeah, this is my friend Mai's brother." I said.

"Who's Mai?" Katara asked.

"Her fire nation friend." Aang said.

"Yeah, and I was going to say, that crazy knife throwing girl?" I said.

"Ugh, I hated her, anyway, yeah?" Katara asked.

"That was Mai." I said nervously. We sat down and thought about what to do. Soon he wandered over to Sokka's club, he sat down and starting gnawing on it.

"No! Bad fire nation baby!" Sokka said angrily, he snatched his club away from Tom-Tom. Tom-Tom started to cry. Katara slapped Sokka. "Oh alright." Sokka complained, he handed his weapon back to the baby.

"Ooooh you're so cute!" Katara said, she pinched the baby's cheeks and kissed his head.

"Sure, he's cure now, but when he's older he'll join the fire nation army, you won't think he's so cute then." Yung said "He'll be a killer."  
>"Does that look like the face of a killer to you?" Katara said. He just looked at her with an unamused face. I heard a cawing from a bird behind me, I looked around and saw a fire nation messenger hawk.<p>

"A messenger hawk?" Yung said. We opened the note and read it.

"It's from the fire nation governor; he thinks we kidnapped his son." Aang said.

"Oh good, he's still up there." I said, I saw the others looking at me weirdly "Sorry, friend stuff." I said.

"Anyway…he wants to make a trade. His son…for King Bumi!" Aang exclaimed. We agreed to make the deal. When morning came we got onto Oppa, Sadie was going to stay and play with Flopsy.

"You know we're walking right into a trap." Sokka said.

"I don't think so. I'm sure the governor wants his son back as much as we want Bumi." Aang said "It's a new day and I have a good feeling about this."

We flew on Oppa to the place of the meeting, I still had my hood up so it covered my face. Sokka had hold of Tom-Tom. Soon after we got there I heard footsteps, I looked in the direction they were coming from and froze, this was possibly the worst case scenario, I saw Mai, my best friend Ty Lee and my sister Azula. I heard a familiar laughing and looked up, Kind Bumi was being lowered, he was in a coffin shaped metal box, only his face was showing. "HI EVERYBODY!" Bumi yelled, I sniggered, it was just too funny. He was put behind the three girls.

"You brought my brother?" Mai asked.

"He's here!" Aang replied "Now let's make the trade."

"I'm sorry but a thought just occurred to me, do you mind?" Azula asked Mai.

"Of course not." Mai replied.

"We're trading a two year old for a king," She turned to Bumi "A powerful earth bending king?" she asked him, he nodded.

"Mm hm." He said.

"It just doesn't seem like a fair trade." Azula said. Mai looked at Tom-Tom.

"You're right, the deal's off." Mai declared. Bumi was taken up by the crane again.

"See you all later!" He laughed.

"Bumi!" Aang called out worriedly. Aang run forward, Azula blasted fire at him, he blocked with his staff. He jumped up to the frame, then threw his glider and jumped on, the fabric came off of his head and revealed his arrow. I winced, damn it!

"The avatar." Azula said "My lucky day." She ran to a cord and cut the bottom so she was raised up. Aang went on top of Bumi's box, I was too far away to hear what they were saying. Mai and Ty Lee ran at us.

"We've gotta get the baby out of here!" Katara said.

"Working on it!" Sokka replied, he was blowing on Aang's bison whistle. We ran backwards. Sokka's foot was hit by something; he fell over and almost slid off the ledge. I saw Ty Lee jump out of the hole. Mai was going against Katara; Katara was still looking at Sokka. I jumped in front of her and managed to catch the three knives that she threw. I pulled my arm back and threw them back at Mai, she stepped to the side and dodged them.

"Katara!" I yelled, she turned around and saw Mai. Mai looked at me, crap, I just spoke, she might recognise me. Mai threw some more knives at Katara; she whipped up some floorboards, the knives lodged into the wood just centimetres in front of Katara's eyes. Katara whipped the floor boards in Mai's directions but missed with every one. I saw Ty Lee heading towards Sokka, I brought out a tentacle of water and wrapped it around her ankle before pulling her over. I watched Sokka run away with the baby, leaving Katara and I to fight the other two. While Katara and I were fighting Mai I didn't hear Ty Lee come up behind us. I saw her jab at Katara's body, chi blocking. Katara could no longer bend and she didn't have any other way to fight. Ty Lee then chi blocked me, but I was fine without my bending.

"How are you going to fight without your bending?" Mai asked cruelly.

"I do just fine!" I heard Sokka yell, he had Oppa! They landed on the floor. Taking advantage of their confusion I ran up and chi blocked both of the girls, they fell to the floor.

"Where did you learn that?!" Ty Lee asked. I pulled down my hood and looked them both in the eye before jumped onto Oppa's saddle; I pulled my hood back up. We looked for Aang around the city. Finally I spotted him, he was riding Bumi's box down one of the mail chutes. We were flying along next to Aang, I saw Azula following him down the chute in a mail basket.

"Hang on Bumi! Our ride's here!" Aang said loudly so that Bumi could hear him. I was watching Azula, she blasted fire at Oppa, I quickly blocked it and sent my own fire in her direction, being the fire bending prodigy she was she dodged it. Aang propelled himself and Bumi into the air using an air blast. We tried to catch them as they went over Oppa but we failed miserably. They landed on another chute and started to ride down that one. Azula followed them down, I saw Bumi move his chin upwards and suddenly a large shard appeared in front of Azula, her basket crashed and she jumped over it but she skidded to a halt on her feet. That earth shard, Bumi could earth bend all along?! I saw Aang and Bumi stop and talk. After a few minutes Bumi pushed himself back up the chute laughing. There's a thin line between genius and madness, Bumi uses that line as a jump rope. We flew down next to Aang and picked him up on Oppa.

That night Aang took Tom-Tom back to his parents secretly, he put Tom-Tom down on the balcony and then left. It was amazing, to see the loving faces of the parents.


	23. Chapter 23

"I can't believe it." Aang said. I pressed my fingers to my necklace.

"I told Oma I'd help protect this city." I said sadly.

"I knew the war had spread far but Omashu always seemed untouchable." Aang said.

"Up until now it was." Sokka said "Now Ba Sing Se is the only great earth kingdom stronghold left."

"This is horrible but we have to move on." Katara said regretfully.

"No, I'm going in to find Bumi." Aang said.

Sokka put his hand up "Aang stop, we don't know if Bumi's even still-"

"What? If he's still what?" Aang asked angrily.

"Uh, around." Sokka said.

"Nice save." I said sarcastically.

"I know you had your heart set on Bumi but there are other people who can teach you earth bending." Katara said.

"This isn't about finding a teacher, this is about finding my friend." Aang said firmly.

"And that's why I'm going to help." I said.

"Really?!" Aang asked.

"Of course." I smiled. We rode Oppa down to a place below the city so we could avoid the main gates. I was leaving Sadie with Oppa but Patch was coming with me.

"A secret passage?" Sokka asked "Why didn't we just use this last time?" Aang was trying to pry the lid off of the pipe. When he did open it loads of mucky and stinky water poured out.

"I'm guessing that's why." I grinned. We climbed in and walked up the pipe, Aang used air bending to keep the water off of him, Katara and I used water bending and Sokka couldn't avoid it, he was covered in it by the time we got to the top. "No more secret passages!" I yelled angrily. Aang opened the man hole and jumped up, I came up next and pulled the other two up.

"That wasn't as bad as I thought." Katara said, suddenly Sokka came through the hole; he was groaning and covered in green slime so you couldn't actually see him. Katara soaked him with water from a barrel and then Aang dried him off with air bending, which made all his hair and clothes fly back.

"What, you don't want to use bending on me?" Sokka asked me.

"I could set you on fire?" I asked.

"Okay, okay." He said. I saw something on his cheeks and laughed, the creatures squiggled, he screamed and tried to yank them off. "THEY WON'T LET GO!" he yelled. Aang tackled him to shut him up. I walked over to them and tickled the little octopuses on the head, they then let go by themselves.

"You can't just yank them off." I said.

"Yeah, and be quiet!" Aang whispered angrily.

"They're purple pentapus." I said. Aang nodded in agreement, he and Sokka followed my example and got the rest off.

"You're so good with animals." Sokka said in relief.

"I know." I shrugged. From the purple pentapus there were spot marks where their suction cups were stuck to his skin.

"Hey, what are you doing?" I spun around and saw a guard; he was the one who asked. Aang ducked behind Sokka, Katara and I. He wrapped some cloth around his tattoo and came back up.

"What are kids doing out past curfew?" the guard asked.

"Sorry, we were just on our way home." Katara smiled uneasily. We turned around and started to walk away.

"Wait!" the guard said "What's the matter with him?" the guard was pointing to Sokka. Katara looked at the spots on his neck from the purple pentapus.

"Uh-he has…pentapox sir." Katara said. The guard walked over and examined Sokka. He went to go and touch his neck.

"Uh-sir, it's highly contagious!" I said, I hoped he bought it. I looked at Sokka and gestured to the guard, he got my gist and started stumbling around and groaning.

"Uhhhh, it's so awful…I'm dyeeiiiiing!" Sokka groaned.

"And deadly." I added.

"Hey, I think I've heard pentapox, didn't your cousin Chang die of it?" the guard asked another guard.

"We better go and wash our hands and burn our clothes!" the guard replied.

"Thank you sewer friend." Aang said, he tickled a purple pentapus. We ran through the streets and up some steps to a construction project, the place was crawling with fire nation soldiers.

"Let's find Bumi and get out of here." Katara said.

"Where would they be keeping him?" Sokka asked.

"Somewhere he can't earth bend, somewhere made of metal." Aang replied. We carried on running through the mail chutes. As we were nearing the last chute I heard rumbling. I looked up and saw two rocks heading towards people on the ground. Aang quickly swiped with his staff and destroyed the boulders, they erupted in a cloud of smoke.

"The resistance!" I saw a woman yelled, I recognised her voice, but I don't know where from. Someone through knives at Aang, I defiantly knew who that was, it was my old friend Mai, the one who taught me how to throw knives. Aang jumped out of the way and ran, we followed his lead. Two soldiers were closing in but Katara managed to whip them away with some water. Mai had now come up from the steps and was following us, I pulled up my hood, I KNEW she would recognise me! She threw some small arrows at Katara, but she pulled up a shield and blocked them. When Aang stopped I kept running with Sokka and Katara. Aang pulled down some of the construction project and stopped Mai from running. She threw a knife at Aang, he spun his staff around, it lodged into the top, right in front of his face, she was about to throw some more knives at us but I felt the ground disappear beneath me. I looked down and saw myself falling. I hit my head and fell to the ground, as I held my head I pulled myself up. I opened my eyes and saw men all around us, they all had earth kingdom robes on. We were told who they were, they were the resistance. We were brought to a hall with many others.

"So, is king Bumi with you guys?" Aang asked "Is he leading the resistance?" All the people in the hall looked at Aang.

"Of course not, on the day of the invasion we readied ourselves for battle. We were prepared to defend our city, to fight for our lives and for our freedom, but before we even had a chance, King Bumi surrendered. The day of the invasion I asked King Bumi what he wanted to do, he looked me in the eye and said 'I'm going to do…nothing!'. It doesn't matter now, fighting the fire nation is the only path to freedom and freedom is worth dying for." The leader of the resistance said.

"Actually there's another path to freedom, you could leave Omashu, you're directing all your energy to fight the fire nation but you're outnumbered. You can't win." Aang said "Now's the time to retreat so you can live to fight another day."

"You don't understand, they've taken our home and we have to fight them at any cost!" The leader said.

"I don't know Yung, living another day is starting to sound pretty good to me." Someone said.

"Yeah, I'm with the kid!" Someone else said. The crowed of people in the hall started mumbling their agreement.

"Fine, but there's thousands of citizens that need to leave, how are we gonna get them all out?" Yung asked. Sokka and I were both thinking, we then looked at each other and grinned.

"Suckers!" we both said at the same time

"You're all about to come down with a nasty case of pentapox." Sokka explained for them.

We had been down in the sewers collecting pentapus. The next morning we got to work, everyone attached the pentapus to their skin and then tickled them and they came right off, leaving the same marks as before. "The marks make you look sick but you gotta act sick too." Sokka said to everyone "You gotta sell it." An old man walked out and started groaning and stumbling around on his walking stick. "Now that's what I'm talking about!" Sokka exclaimed.

"Years of practice." The old man said.

"Okay everyone, into sick formation!" I yelled. Sokka and I followed the others but Katara and Aang stayed behind, I don't know why but they did. We walked through the town and were all groaning. We closed in on soldiers to add effect. Some people even fell over!

"PLAGUE! PLAGUE!" a soldier yelled, he and the rest of the fire nation soldiers ran away, a bell was rung on the watch tower of the wall. The gates were opened and we were let out of the city, score! We walked away to where there was cover and set up many campfires for everyone. Yung was doing a headcount when Aang came back, with a familiar animal.

"Flopsy!" I yelled, I went and hugged Flopsy's neck and was licked in turn. I laughed and went and sat back next to Sadie.

"I looked everywhere, no Bumi." Aang said sadly.

"We've got a problem, we just finished our headcount." Yung said.

"Oh no, did someone get left behind?" Katara asked.

"No, we have an extra." Yung said, he pointed to the side. I saw Momo and a baby! But not just any baby, I recognised this one!

"TOM-TOM?!" I yelled.

"You know him?" Yung asked.

"Yeah, this is my friend Mai's brother." I said.

"Who's Mai?" Katara asked.

"Her fire nation friend." Aang said.

"Yeah, and I was going to say, that crazy knife throwing girl?" I said.

"Ugh, I hated her, anyway, yeah?" Katara asked.

"That was Mai." I said nervously. We sat down and thought about what to do. Soon he wandered over to Sokka's club, he sat down and starting gnawing on it.

"No! Bad fire nation baby!" Sokka said angrily, he snatched his club away from Tom-Tom. Tom-Tom started to cry. Katara slapped Sokka. "Oh alright." Sokka complained, he handed his weapon back to the baby.

"Ooooh you're so cute!" Katara said, she pinched the baby's cheeks and kissed his head.

"Sure, he's cure now, but when he's older he'll join the fire nation army, you won't think he's so cute then." Yung said "He'll be a killer."  
>"Does that look like the face of a killer to you?" Katara said. He just looked at her with an unamused face. I heard a cawing from a bird behind me, I looked around and saw a fire nation messenger hawk.<p>

"A messenger hawk?" Yung said. We opened the note and read it.

"It's from the fire nation governor; he thinks we kidnapped his son." Aang said.

"Oh good, he's still up there." I said, I saw the others looking at me weirdly "Sorry, friend stuff." I said.

"Anyway…he wants to make a trade. His son…for King Bumi!" Aang exclaimed. We agreed to make the deal. When morning came we got onto Oppa, Sadie was going to stay and play with Flopsy.

"You know we're walking right into a trap." Sokka said.

"I don't think so. I'm sure the governor wants his son back as much as we want Bumi." Aang said "It's a new day and I have a good feeling about this."

We flew on Oppa to the place of the meeting, I still had my hood up so it covered my face. Sokka had hold of Tom-Tom. Soon after we got there I heard footsteps, I looked in the direction they were coming from and froze, this was possibly the worst case scenario, I saw Mai, my best friend Ty Lee and my sister Azula. I heard a familiar laughing and looked up, Kind Bumi was being lowered, he was in a coffin shaped metal box, only his face was showing. "HI EVERYBODY!" Bumi yelled, I sniggered, it was just too funny. He was put behind the three girls.

"You brought my brother?" Mai asked.

"He's here!" Aang replied "Now let's make the trade."

"I'm sorry but a thought just occurred to me, do you mind?" Azula asked Mai.

"Of course not." Mai replied.

"We're trading a two year old for a king," She turned to Bumi "A powerful earth bending king?" she asked him, he nodded.

"Mm hm." He said.

"It just doesn't seem like a fair trade." Azula said. Mai looked at Tom-Tom.

"You're right, the deal's off." Mai declared. Bumi was taken up by the crane again.

"See you all later!" He laughed.

"Bumi!" Aang called out worriedly. Aang run forward, Azula blasted fire at him, he blocked with his staff. He jumped up to the frame, then threw his glider and jumped on, the fabric came off of his head and revealed his arrow. I winced, damn it!

"The avatar." Azula said "My lucky day." She ran to a cord and cut the bottom so she was raised up. Aang went on top of Bumi's box, I was too far away to hear what they were saying. Mai and Ty Lee ran at us.

"We've gotta get the baby out of here!" Katara said.

"Working on it!" Sokka replied, he was blowing on Aang's bison whistle. We ran backwards. Sokka's foot was hit by something; he fell over and almost slid off the ledge. I saw Ty Lee jump out of the hole. Mai was going against Katara; Katara was still looking at Sokka. I jumped in front of her and managed to catch the three knives that she threw. I pulled my arm back and threw them back at Mai, she stepped to the side and dodged them.

"Katara!" I yelled, she turned around and saw Mai. Mai looked at me, crap, I just spoke, she might recognise me. Mai threw some more knives at Katara; she whipped up some floorboards, the knives lodged into the wood just centimetres in front of Katara's eyes. Katara whipped the floor boards in Mai's directions but missed with every one. I saw Ty Lee heading towards Sokka, I brought out a tentacle of water and wrapped it around her ankle before pulling her over. I watched Sokka run away with the baby, leaving Katara and I to fight the other two. While Katara and I were fighting Mai I didn't hear Ty Lee come up behind us. I saw her jab at Katara's body, chi blocking. Katara could no longer bend and she didn't have any other way to fight. Ty Lee then chi blocked me, but I was fine without my bending.

"How are you going to fight without your bending?" Mai asked cruelly.

"I do just fine!" I heard Sokka yell, he had Oppa! They landed on the floor. Taking advantage of their confusion I ran up and chi blocked both of the girls, they fell to the floor.

"Where did you learn that?!" Ty Lee asked. I pulled down my hood and looked them both in the eye before jumped onto Oppa's saddle; I pulled my hood back up. We looked for Aang around the city. Finally I spotted him, he was riding Bumi's box down one of the mail chutes. We were flying along next to Aang, I saw Azula following him down the chute in a mail basket.

"Hang on Bumi! Our ride's here!" Aang said loudly so that Bumi could hear him. I was watching Azula, she blasted fire at Oppa, I quickly blocked it and sent my own fire in her direction, being the fire bending prodigy she was she dodged it. Aang propelled himself and Bumi into the air using an air blast. We tried to catch them as they went over Oppa but we failed miserably. They landed on another chute and started to ride down that one. Azula followed them down, I saw Bumi move his chin upwards and suddenly a large shard appeared in front of Azula, her basket crashed and she jumped over it but she skidded to a halt on her feet. That earth shard, Bumi could earth bend all along?! I saw Aang and Bumi stop and talk. After a few minutes Bumi pushed himself back up the chute laughing. There's a thin line between genius and madness, Bumi uses that line as a jump rope. We flew down next to Aang and picked him up on Oppa.

That night Aang took Tom-Tom back to his parents secretly, he put Tom-Tom down on the balcony and then left. It was amazing, to see the loving faces of the parents.


	24. Chapter 24

Seeing Azula and my friends again had shaken me up quite a bit. I have had nightmares every night since them but had refused to talk to anyone else about them.

At the moment we were flying over a swamp, we were trying to find a teacher for both me and Aang. Sokka was sharpening his club, Katara was reading a water bending scroll and I was trying to catch up on my sleep. "Hey, you taking us down for a reason?" Sokka asked. I opened an eye and looked around; we were heading down into the swamp below. Aang did nothing. "Aang!" Sokka said.

"Oh-what-huh." Aang said.

"Why are we going down?" I mumbled.

"What? I didn't even notice." Aang said, we carried on going down.

"Are you noticing now?" Sokka asked sarcastically.

"Is something wrong?" Katara asked.

"I know this is gonna sound really weird but I think the swamp is…calling to me." Aang said.

"Is it telling you where we can get something to eat?" Sokka asked.

"No, I-I think it wants us to land there." Aang stuttered.

"No offence to the swamp but I don't see any land there to land on." Sokka shrugged.

"I don't know, Bumi said to learn earth bending I would have to wait and listen, and now I'm actually hearing the earth." Aang said "Do you want me to ignore it?"

"Yes." Sokka said.

"I don't know, there's something ominous about that place." Katara said, she was peering over the side of Oppa's saddle cautiously. Momo ducked down and Oppa roared fearfully, Patch hid in my jacket and Sadie started whimpering.

"See, even Oppa, Momo, Patch AND Sadie don't like it here." Sokka said.

"Okay, since everyone feels so strongly about this, bye swamp." Aang shrugged. "Yip yip." He said, Oppa started to fly up again. I saw Sokka looked behind us and gasped. When I saw what was happening so did I! There was a tornado! I quickly grabbed my rope and tied Sadie to Oppa's saddle so that they could stay together.

"You better throw in an extra yip, we gotta move!" Sokka said. I grabbed Sadie and held her, Patch was still inside my jacket, I could feel her holding onto the fabric for dear life. We watched the tornado as it gained on us. Sokka went to go and fly off the saddle, Katara and I grabbed his hand and tried to keep him from flying off. Aang jumped onto Oppa's saddle next to us and made a giant, protective ball of air around us. Sokka came back into the saddle but we were sucked into the tornado. Aang was struggling to keep the shield up. Finally he let it go and we all flew off of Oppa's saddle.

We all landed in the water in about the same place. I got up and blinked the swamp water out of my eyes. I pulled Katara out of the water and saw Sokka push himself up.

"Where's Oppa, Momo and Sadie?" Aang asked. Aang rushed over to a tree and climbed up to get a better view of the swamp. I heard him call out Oppa, Sadie and Momo's names.

"Sokka, you've got an elbow leech." Katara warned.

"WHERE?! WHERE?!" he screamed.

"Where do you think?" I asked sarcastically. He looked on his elbow and saw the big black leech; he pulled it off and threw it away.

"Why do things keep attaching me?!" he yelled. Aang swung down on a vine.

"You couldn't find them?" Katara asked Aang.

"No, and the tornado, it just disappeared." He said. We started trying to find the animals.

"We gotta speed things up." Sokka said, he was slashing vines down with his sword. I felt like we shouldn't be harming the swamp though.

"Maybe we should be a little nicer to the swamp." Aang said, voicing my thoughts.

"Aang, these are just plants, do you want me to say please and thank you as I swing my machete back and forth?" Sokka asked.

"Maybe you should listen to Aang, something about this place feels…alive." Katara said suspiciously.

"I agree." I nodded.

"I'm sure there are a lot of things that are alive here and if we don't wanna wind up getting eaten by them we need to find Oppa as fast as we can." Sokka said.

"But you can do that without killing all the plants." I said. He kept slashing at the vines in front of him.

"OPPA! MOMO! SADIE!" I yelled, it was getting dark.

"There's no way they can hear us and no way we can see them." Sokka said "We'll have to make camp for the night." Insects buzzed next to Sokka, he swatted them. Suddenly something bubbled from the water and out of it burst something that looked a lot like mist.

"What was that?" Katara asked.

"Nothing, just swamp gas, look, there's nothing supernatural going on here." Sokka said. Suddenly I heard a blood-curdling scream. We all hugged each other. I looked up and saw a bird that was screaming and then relaxed. "I think we should build a fire." Sokka said.

"Right." We all nodded in unison. Sokka walked over to a small tree in the ground and started to cut off its branches, I stuck with picking them off of the floor.

"Sokka, the longer we're here, the more I think you shouldn't be doing that." Aang said warily.

"No, I asked the swamp, it said this was fine." Sokka replied "Right swamp?" he grabbed a branched and wiggled it around, faking its voice "No problem Sokka." It said. Sokka then chopped the top off of the branch. Sokka put the twigs and branches down and I set fire to them. We all sat around the fire.

"Does anyone else get the feeling that we're being watched?" Katara asked.

"Please, we're all alone out here." Sokka said, he carried on trying to swat the bugs buzzing around his head. Suddenly the bug started glowing and it flew around, the light went into the branches and revealed many sets of vicious eyes.

"Except for them." Aang said.

"Right, except for them." Sokka said, we all huddled together, whimpering. We feel asleep leaning against each other.

I woke and didn't expect what I saw; I was being dragged away by vines. I cut the vines that were tying my arms, legs and body with my knife. I saw more vines shooting at me so I ran as fast as I could in one direction. I ducked down into the water and swam down the swamp. I pulled myself onto a tree root and dried myself off with water bending. I shivered and looked around, it was dark and foggy and I couldn't see the others. I started walking forward carefully.

"Aang! Katara! Sokka! Anyone there?!" I yelled, no reply.

"I'm here." I heard a voice say. I whirled around and gasped, it was Azula. I turned back around to run but saw Zuko?! What's going on!

"Stay away from me!" I yelled, they both walked towards me, I ran and ran as fast as I could. I curled up and the base of a tree trunk and cried into my arms, praying that my brother and sister wouldn't find me. I sat there for what seemed like hours, with my knees to my chest and my head in my hands, rocking back and forth in fear.

Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder; I lashed out with a big wave of fire. When the light cleared I saw that it was Aang that I had fired at, luckily he wasn't hurt. I sighed a breath of relief and hugged him. "What's wrong?" Aang asked.

"Let's just get out of here." I said. I looked around and saw Sokka and Katara, no Azula or Zuko.

"I've been looking all over for you!" Sokka yelled at all of us.

"Well I've been wandering around looking for you." Katara said.

"I figured if I stayed still then we would eventually find each other." I lied through my teeth.

"I was chasing some girl." Aang said.

"What girl?" I asked.

"I don't know." He said "I heard laughing and I saw some girl in a fancy dress."

"Well there must be a tea party here and we just didn't get our invitation." Sokka said.

"I thought I saw Mum." Katara said sadly.

"Look, we were all just scared and hungry and our minds were playing tricks on us." Sokka said "That's why we all saw things out here."

"You saw something too?" Katara asked.

"I thought I saw Yue but that doesn't prove anything, look, I think about her all the time and you saw Mum, someone you miss a lot." Sokka said to Katara.

"What about me? I didn't know the girl I saw." Aang said "And all our visions led us here."

"Okay, so where is here exactly?" I asked "The middle of the swamp?"

"Yeah, the centre," Aang said, he looked up at a MASSIVE TREE "It's the centre of the swamp, it's been calling us here, I knew it."

"It's just a tree, it can't call anyone, for the last time there's nothing after us and there's nothing magical happening here!" Sokka said. Suddenly something burst out of the water,

"AAAAHHHH!" we all yelled. It was a giant monster made out of vines; it had a wooden mask on. It tried to splat us and hit us. We all ran in different directions. I used water to cut the vine arm off but it grew back. The monster outstretched some vines and grabbed me. I managed to grab my knife and cut myself free. Soon it grabbed Sokka and ran through the water with him. I rode a wave to the monster, I saw Katara doing the same thing, she sliced the shoulder of the monster so it dropped Sokka. Katara and I dodged its powerful attacks while making ours against it. Katara and I were hit away; I slammed into a tree and slid to the floor. I winced and got back up. I looked and Saw Sokka being absorbed into the monster, it was sucking him in. It started to walk away with Sokka but I saw Aang get on an air scooter and jump on top of the monster. He made a whirlwind of air around the monster, he jumped off, the monster was now deformed and couldn't attack properly. Taking this into her advantage Katara made the parts around Sokka freeze before pulling him off of the monster. I then blasted fire right through the beast, a big hole appeared in its stomach, it pulled more roots out of the water and closed the hole. Aang jumped down from a tree and pushed it's face into the water, it got up and swatted him away like a bug. Katara and I both brought up disks of water from the swamp and sliced the monster into a lot of pieces. As we were doing this I saw glimpses of what looked like a person inside.

"There's a guy in there!" Sokka yelled "He's bending the vines!" Katara nodded and proceeded to slice the head off of the monster with a powerful whip attack. The vines went down and grabbed Katara. Aang jumped down from who knows where and blew the vines away from the guy inside them.

"Why did you call me here if you just wanted to kill us?" Aang demanded.

"Wait, I didn't call you here." The guy said.

"We were flying over and I heard something calling to me, telling me to land." Aang said. The guy frowned in confusion.

"He's the avatar, stuff like that happens to us a lot." I shrugged.

"The avatar? Come with me." The guy said. He had gray hair and his only clothing was a few leaves which he used as underwear. We looked at each other and nodded before following the guy.

"So who are you then?" Katara asked on our way up the tree.

"I protect the swamp from folks who want to hurt it like the feller with his big knife." The guy said.

"See, completely reasonable." Sokka said "Not a monster, just a regular guy defending his home, nothing mystical about it."

"The swamp is a mystical place all right, it's sacred, I reached enlightenment right here under the banyan tree, I heard it calling me, just like you did." The guy said, he sat down on the floor.

"Sure you did, it seems real chatty." Sokka smirked, I laughed.

"See, this whole swamp is actually just one tree spread out over miles, branches spread and sink and take root, then they spread some more! One big living organism, just like the entire world." The guy said.

"I get how the tree is one big thing but the whole world?" Aang asked.

"Sure, you think you're any different from me or your friends or this tree? If you listen hard enough you can hear every living thing breathing together, you can feel everything growing, we're all living together even if most folks don't act like it, we all have the same roots and we are all branches are the same tree." The guy said.

"But what did our visions mean?" Katara asked.

"In the swamp we see visions of people we've lost, people we loved. Folks who we think are gone, but the swamp tells us they're not." The guy said.

"Who did you see?" Sokka asked me.

"I saw my brother and sister." I said sadly "I loved them once, they're still alive, but they're gone."

"We're still connected to them, time in an illusion and so is death." The guy said.

"But what about my vision? It was someone who I'd never met." Aang asked.

"You're the avatar, you tell me!" the guy said.

"Time is an illusion, so, it's someone I will meet?" Aang asked. The guy nodded.

"Sorry to interrupt the lesson but we still need to find Oppa, Momo and Sadie." Sokka said.

"I think I know how to find them." Aang said. He put his hand on the tree and closed his eyes. After a few moments he opened his eyes and said "Come on! We've gotta hurry!" We followed Aang through the swamp. After a while we saw some boats, dragging Oppa and Sadie in nets. We attacked the dudes and found out they were water benders.

"Hey, you guys are water benders?" Katara asked.

"You too? That means we're kin!" the dude said, he was also wearing leaves. We stopped attacking each other. The guy from earlier walked next to us and waved at the dude.

"Hey Hue, how you been?" the dude asked.

"You know, scared some folks, swung some vines, the usual." Hue said. We all looked at him with unimpressed expressions.

"Hue?" Sokka asked. We went to their camp and had some food, well not me, I'd rather not eat bugs.

"How you guys liking that possum chicken?" the dude asked.

"Tastes just like arctic hen." Sokka said "So why were you guys so interested in eating out pets? You got plenty of those big things walking around." Sokka pointed at a crocodile.

"You want me to eat old slim? He's like a member of the family." The dude said, he fed Slim a fish.

"Nice Slim." Sokka said, he threw his food to Slim but it hit Slim's head. Slim growled at Sokka before slithering back into the water.

"He don't eat no bugs!" the dude laughed "That's people food."

"Where'd you say you was from?" someone asked.

"The south Pole." Katara answered.

"Didn't know there was water benders anywhere but here." He said "They got a nice swamp there do they?"

"No, it's all ice and snow." Katara said. They looked at her as if that was the most unusual thing they had ever heard.

"No wonder you left." Someone said.

"Well I hope you realise now that nothing strange was going on here, just a bunch of greasy people living in a swamp." Sokka said.

"What about the visions?" Katara asked.

"I told you, we were hungry, I'm eating a giant bug!" Sokka said, he took a bite out of the bug, I winced.

"But what about when the tree showed me where Oppa, Momo and Sadie were?" Aang asked.

"That's avatar stuff, that doesn't count." Sokka said. I looked over at Sadie, she was shivering, and she was getting old. I walked over to her and sat next to her, I lit a flame above my palm, and she cuddled closer.

"It all makes sense Sokka, but the only thing I can't make sense of is the tornado that sucked us down." I said.

"I can't do anything like that, I just bend the water in the plants." Hue said.

"Well, no accounting for weather." Sokka shrugged "Still, there's absolutely nothing mysterious about the swamp." Sokka said, sure, whatever. "Do you have anything else to eat?" Sokka asked.

"Well, we have this one big egg, we've been saving it for some visitors." A dude said. Sokka licked his lips, someone handed him the egg, it was quite big. . I stared at it, Sokka got out his club and prepared to smash it.

"No!" I yelled, I grabbed the egg off of Sokka and held it.

"Hey, no fair, don't eat it all." Sokka said.

"I'm not going to eat it." I said. I held the egg in my arms, it felt like it was…throbbing? I don't know how but I knew how to hatch it. I put my hands on either side of the egg and heated my hands up, the shell grew hot and glowed. I felt something moving inside, I put it down on the floor, it started to rock from side to side. I saw something smash through the side of the egg, it was scaly and had claws. Next it pushed out it's head, and I knew what it was, it was a dragon! It got itself out of the egg and the first thing it saw was me. It crawled over and curled up in my lap. Sadie lent down and started licking all the goo off of it. It was a beautiful gleaming white colour. It had horns coming off of it's head and stretching down it's neck, it had two small whiskers. Behind the horns was a line of gray fur that stretched all the way down its neck, back, and ended in a small tuft on its tail. It's wings large and gray. I smiled and stroked it's neck, I guessed it belonged to me now. I always heard that dragons live for a VERY long time, I had a new friend.


	25. Chapter 25

At the moment we were in a forest, we had only been travelling a few days. I was awoken by a rough rumbling. I rubbed my eyes and looked around, okay, good, we hadn't been captured. The female dragon, who I had named Kaida, used a special ability, she could go invisible. I looked around and saw guys riding on Komodo rhinos. "Give up, you're clearly surrounded!" he yelled. A guy shot some arrows at us, they were on fire, they pinned Sokka's sleeping bag to the ground. Sadie hopped onto Oppa and led down close to the saddle.

"Come on! Come on!" Sokka yelled.

"My scrolls!" Katara yelled.

"MY scrolls!" I yelled, a guy pinned both of our scrolls to a tree stump.

"My staff!" Aang said loudly. Katara and I ran and grabbed our scrolls before running back and getting onto Oppa. I saw Aang run and grab his staff, someone threw a bomb at him, he wacked it into the forest, I covered my ears as it exploded. I felt Kaida claw her way up to my neck and wrap around me for safety, she would never leave my side. Aang jumped back onto Oppa "Yip yip!" he commanded, we started to fly away.

"My boomerang!" Sokka yelled, I looked down, his boomerang was still on the floor. Someone blasted fire at us, I jumped up and sent it back at the attacker.

"There's no time." Katara said.

"Oh I see, so there's time to get your scrolls, there's time to get your scrolls and time to get your staff but no time to get my boomerang?!" Sokka asked.

"That's correct." Katara said smugly.

"Oh." Sokka slouched. We stopped at a nearby village.

"Sorry about your boomerang." Aang said to Sokka.

"I feel like I've lost part of my identity." Sokka sulked "Imagine if you lost your arrow, or if Hotaru lost her scar, or Katara lost her…hair loopies?!" Katara hugged Sokka apologetically.

"Here's your produce pony tail guy." The shop keeper said.

"I use to be boomerang guy." Sokka sulked, he walked away sadly. Katara gave the shop keeper some money, he inspected a coin.

"Hey, water tribe money." He smiled.

"I hope that's okay." I said.

"So long as its money." The shop keeper nodded. We started to get ready to leave "Have a nice avatar day!" the shop keeper said, we all looked in his direction in confusion.

"Avatar day?" Aang asked.

"You guys are going to the festival right?" he asked. We all smiled at each other, we were going.

Kaida was invisible but curled around my neck while Patch curled up in my bag, Sadie stayed with Oppa. "Who knew there was a holiday for the avatar?" Aang asked once we were down in

"Who knew?" I shrugged.

"Look!" Katara said. I looked around at what she was pointing up at; there was a massive wood and paper statue of avatar Kyoshi. "They made a giant Kyoshi float."Katara said. We ran through a street to the town plaza.

"And there's avatar Roku." Sokka said. There was a big statue of Roku being pushed behind Kyoshi.

"Having a huge festival in your honour is great but frankly, it's just nice to be appreciated." Aang smiled.

"And it's nice to appreciate their deep fried festival food." Sokka grinned; he stuffed a whole doughnut in his mouth at once.

"Aang look!" Katara said, it was a giant Aang statue.

"That's the biggest me I've ever seen." Aang said. The statues were lined up in the plaza. A man was running to them with a torch."

Sokka pointed at the man with the torch and said "A torch, that's a nice prop, it's bright, it's dangerous, smells manly, but I'm not sure I could carry it off."  
>"Hey, what's that guy doing?" I asked, he was running with the torch at avatar Kyoshi. He jumped through it with the torch and set Kyoshi on fire.<p>

"Down with the avatar! Down with the avatar! Down with the avatar!" the crowd jeered. The guy set fire to Roku after. The guy jumped onto a roof and was given a gesture by some goofy looking man. He pulled back and threw the torch at Aang's statue. It hit the fake Aang's eye and set him on fire. Katara ran forward and water bended all the water out of nearby jugs, she soaked the statues and put out the fire.

"That party pooper is ruining avatar day!" a crowd member yelled angrily. Aang jumped onto his statue's shoulder.

"That party pooper is my friend!" Aang yelled, he threw away the hat he was wearing, revealing his bald head and arrow.

"It's the avatar himself!" the goofy man from earlier yelled.

"It's going to kill us with his awesome avatar powers!" someone else yelled.

Aang started "No, I'm not I-"he raised his hand up, the man screamed and ran away. Aang looked at his hand and put it behind his back.

"I suggest you leave, you're not welcome here avatar." The goofy man said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Aang helps people." Katara added.

"It's true, I'm on your side." Aang said, he jumped down from his statue's shoulder.

"I find that hard to swallow considering what you did to us in your past life, it was avatar Kyoshi, she murdered our glorious leader Chin the great." The goofy man said.

"You think that I murdered someone?" Aang asked.

"We used to be a great society before you killed our leader, now look at us!" A _really _ugly old man said. I gasped and took a step back.

"Aang would never do something like that, no avatar would, and it's not fair for you all to question his honour." Katara said.

"Let's tell her what we think of the avatar's honour!" a man yelled, he waved his butt in the air and blew a raspberry. The rest of the crowd cheered.

"Give me a chance to clear my name." Aang said.

"The only way to prove your innocence is to stand trial." The goofy man said.

"I'll gladly stand trial." Aang said firmly.

"You'll have to follow all our rules, that includes paying bail." The goofy man said. I stormed over to him and chi blocked him, he fell down to the floor. I walked back over to the others who were looking at me like they couldn't believe I'd done that.

"You know you wanted to do that anyway." I shrugged, they nodded.

"Correction, pay bail for two." The goofy guy said from the floor, I groaned, oops.

"No problem." Aang nodded.

"How was I supposed to know they wouldn't take water tribe money?" Aang asked, we were both in portable wooden stocks and in prison.

"So some people don't like you, no big deal, there's a whole nation of fire benders who hate you, now let's bust you outta here." Sokka said.

"I can't." Aang said regretfully.

"Sure you can!" Sokka cheered Aang on. "A little," he blew out of his mouth "Swish swish swish!" he sliced his arms though the air "Air bending slice! And we're on our way."

"I think what master swish is trying to say is that you're supposed to be out saving the world, you can't do that locked up in here." Katara said.

"I can't do that with people thinking I'm a murderer either, I need you guys to help prove my innocence." Aang said.

"I'm gonna stay here with Aang, but when you do get him out I'll just break out and be on my way." I said.

"But how are we gonna prove his innocence?" Sokka asked "The crime was committed over 100 years ago."

"That's okay Sokka, for some reason I thought you were an expert detective." Aang said, I had to try not to laugh, well played Aang.

"Well, I guess I could be classified as such." Sokka grinned.

"Yeah, back home he was famous for solving the mystery of the missing seal jerky." Katara said.

"Everyone wanted to blame it on a polar leopard but I figured out it was old man jacko wearing polar leopard boots." Sokka said, Katara squeezed the bridge of her nose, Aang and I shrugged. "See, a real 800 pound polar leopard would have left much deeper tracks." Sokka said, Katara put her hand over her mouth to stop herself laughing when Aang mimicked Sokka. "Okay, I guess I am pretty good." Sokka said smugly.

"So, you'll help me with my case?" Aang asked.

"Fine, but I'm gonna need some new props." Sokka said, he left and came back a few minutes later with a pipe and a weird hat with magnifying glasses on it. "I'm ready." He said, he pulled a magnifying glass in front of his eye. Katara laughed "What?" Sokka asked. Katara and Sokka left while Aang and I went to mingle with all the delightful prison people. I took of the wooden stock and put it on the floor; I took off my jacket and out it on the stock. I walked and sat at a table. I saw a dude with snake tattoos and a bald head. He walked over, I saw that he had a chain around his neck.

"What's a little defenceless girl doing in a place like this?" he asked. I smirked and stood up.

"Hotaru, don't!" I heard Aang yelled, I looked at Aang and frowned. "Fine, but make it quick." Aang sighed, I nodded and smiled thankfully. I turned back to the bald guy and chi blocked him, he fell to the ground. I sat back down.

"That's what I'm doing in a place like this." I smirked. When the snake guy's feeling came back I realised he wasn't that bad, nobody was. We sat down in a circle and just chatted.

"This girl you're talking about, she'll come around." He said "You just gotta hang in there."

"You think so?" Aang asked.

"Sure." He said.

"Yeah." Someone else in the circle said.

"You're a catch." Someone else in the circle said.

"I don't know." Aang said sadly.

"Hey, you're smart, handsome, funny, not to mention you're the avatar." Snake guy said.

"You guys are great." Aang said "What about you Hotaru, got a crush on anyone?" he asked me.

"Well, when we last saw each other Teo asked me on a date, but he's kind of in an air temple and I'm here." I said sadly.

"Don't be afraid to tell them how you feel." Someone said, he wiped a tear from his cheek.

"There there, there there." I said, I patted him on the shoulders. That night we were called to the gate of the prison to talk to the goofy man, he was the mayor.

"Honourable mayor, we've prepared a solid defence for the avatar." Katara said "We did an investigation and found some very strong evidence."

"Evidence? Hah! That's not how our court system works." The mayor laughed.

"Then how do I prove my innocence?" Aang asked.

"Simple, I say what happened and then you say what happened and then I decide who's right." The mayor said, I wanted to fire bend that smirk off of his face. "That's why we call it justice, because its just us." He walked away laughing. I had to stay in the prison while Aang delivered his story.

After a while of me just sitting there I heard screams and rocks falling, I guess someone was attacking. I shrugged and took off my wooden stock. I used water to make steps on the wall before jumped out of the prison and melted them. I smiled and waved at the guys in the prison before running out to help. I saw one of the members of the attackers; it was the rough rhinos attacking. I saw the leader of the group, a fire bender. I grinned and ran over to him, he was facing the other way so didn't see me push him off of his rhino. He blasted some fore out of his fist at me, I bent backwards and gasped as it almost hit my face. I kicked a big ball of my own fire at him, he put his arm up and let it bounce to the side, it hit a house and set it on fire. I gasped; I pulled some water out of a barrel and put the fire out. I turned around and saw him running at me, luckily Aang jumped right in the way and grabbed his arm, the man flew into a house nearby but got up straight away. When I looked at Aang I saw that he had two fans, Kyoshi warrior make up on, and a Kyoshi warrior head dress. I frowned and shook my head, I'll ask later. I got up and saw the dude back on his rhino, he ran at us with some fire surrounding his hands. Aang jumped over him and blew wind at him from above while I grabbed onto the gutter of a roof and ran across the edge before jumping off and landing next to Aang. He dropped his fans and his head dress had fallen off. He rode an air scooter over to the leader and blasted air at him, the leader dodged. Aang was now at the opposite end of the street from the leader. I jumped back to safety on the roof. Aang and the leader ran at each other, the leader released a huge wave of fire; Aang went through it feet first and kicked the rough rhino leader off of his rhino again. The leader flew into a house. We had defeated the rough rhinos.

That night we were being celebrated for saving the Chin village. Fireworks were going off and confetti was falling everywhere. "From now on, we'll celebrate a new avatar day in honour of the day avatar Aang saved us from the rough rhino invasion!" the mayor declared.

"What's this?" Sokka asked, we were all holding a bowl of new festival food.

"That's our new festival food, un-fried dough, may we eat it and be reminded of how on this day the avatar was not boiled in oil!" the mayor said. He got a reply of many cheers and clapping from the crowd. Aang lost the trial, before avatar Kyoshi spoke through him and confessed, he was then going to be boiled in oil as a punishment but then the rough rhinos showed up and the Aang and I were let off the hook for defeating them. We took some of the food out of the bowl.

"Happy avatar day everyone." Katara said before eating the raw dough. Aang ate his but it was spilling out of his mouth.

"This is by far the worst town we've ever been to." Sokka said while looking at the food.

"Yup." I answered before I ate mine and gulped it down before I could spit it out. Nice, real nice.


	26. Chapter 26

We were in the middle of a real big city, it was really fun to go around and just do stuff. We were at a store, Sokka was trying to decide whether to buy a bag or not. Sokka was examining the bag and said "It's pricey, buuuut, I really do like it."

"Then you should get it." Katara said.

"Yeah, you deserve something nice." I said.

"I do don't I?!" he said "But no, it's too expensive, I shouldn't."

"Alright, then don't." Katara said. We all started to walk away.

"You know what, I'm gonna get it." Sokka said.

"Psssst, you kids like earth bending?" a random guy in the street asked "You like throwing rocks, then check out Master Yu's earth bending academy." He handed us a flyer.

"Seems dodgy." I said straight away.

"But there's a coupon on the back!" Aang said "The first lesson is free."

"Who knows, this master Yu could be the earth bending teacher you've been looking for." Katara said. We did go to the academy; both Aang and I had a difficult time with the fighting style. I was already used to sticking my ground but earth bending was about defence, I was brought up on offence, Aang was having the most difficult time with it, he wasn't used to sticking his ground, he was fine with defending though.

"Take your stances!" Yu said firmly, I did, I crouched down as solid as a rock. "Now strike as if you're punching through your opponent's head!" Master Yu yelled. Both Aang and I frowned at how weird that last thing sounded. We both lost our concentration and were both knocked into a wall. "So, are you ready to commit to more lessons, if you pay for the whole year in advance I'll bump you up to the next belt." Master Yu said. I rolled my eyes and left the academy with Aang.

"He's not the one." Aang said to Katara and Sokka.

"He's crazy." I said.

"I think the boulder is going to win the belt at tonight's rumble 6." I saw a student say.

"He's going to have to fight his way to the best earth benders in the world to even get a shot at the champ." His friend said.

"Excuse me but where is this earth bending tournament exactly?" Aang asked them.

"It's on the island of noneya…none ya business!" a student said. They both walked away laughing.

"HAHAHAHA, oh I gotta remember that one." Sokka said.

"Katara? Will you come and help me?" I asked.

"Sure." She smiled sweetly, we walked behind the building where the two boys were and got the information we needed. "You ready to find an earth bending teacher?" Katara asked Aang once we ran back to them.

"We're going to earth rumble 6!" I exclaimed happily.

"How'd you get them to tell you?" Aang asked.

"Oh, a girl has her ways." Katara smiled. While the others walked off I remembered the boy's faces as we froze them in ice against the walls, they weren't getting out of there any time soon.

When night came we got to earth rumble 6, it was in a mountain. We got front row seats. "Hey, front row seats, I wonder why no one else is sitting here?" Aang asked. We sat down and got comfy. A giant boulder pulverised the seats next to us.

"I guess that's why." Sokka said. I looked at the fighting ring in front of us, it rose into the air and the host was on an earth pillar.

"WELCOME TO EARTH RUMBLE 6!" the host yelled loudly, deafening cheers filled the mountain. "I AM YOUR HOST, XIN FU!" he yelled.

"Ahhhhh, this is just gonna be a bunch of guys chucking rocks at each other, isn't it?" Katara asked, unimpressed.

"That's what I paid for." Sokka smirked.

"The ruled are simple, just knock the other guy out of the ring and you win!" Xin Fu said loudly. He used earth bending to kick himself off of the floor and onto a seat very high up to watch the matches. "ROUND 1! The boulder vs the big bad hippo!" Xin Fu yelled. The boulder was a very well built man and the hippo was just as his name implied, he had flat teeth and was massive. The boulder roared.

"Listen up Hippo, you may be big but you ain't bad, the boulder is gonna win this in a landslide." The boulder said.

"Hippo mad!" Hippo yelled. After hardly any time the boulder won.

"How about the boulder, he's got some good moves." Katara suggested.

"Uh, I dunno, Bumi said I need a teacher who listens to the earth. He's just listening to his big muscles." Aang said.

"What do you think Sokka?" I asked.

"AAAAHHHH, WOOOOOHHHHH, WOOHOOOOOO!" he yelled at the ring. I shrugged.

"Next match, the boulder vs fire nation man!" Xin Fu yelled. I watched as an earth bender came on wearing red with a fire nation flag.

"BOOOOOO, BOOOOOO!" Sokka yelled.

"All please rise for fire nation national anthem." Fire Nation Man said, he then started singing "Fire Lord, my flame burns for thee!" Everyone booed and threw stuff at him.

"GO BACK TO THE FIRE NATION!" Sokka yelled. He threw a rock; it hit fire nation man on the head. I punched Sokka very hard, he fell down to the floor. I didn't even see how but fire nation man was out of the ring, he was in the boulder that had landed next to us earlier, he slid to the floor groaning in pain. "YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!" Sokka yelled "THE BOULDER KNOWS HOW TO PUT THE HURT IN THE DIRT! YEEEEAAAAHHHH! WOOOO!" Sokka yelled. Someone rode a badger mole across the ring, clearing away all the dirt. Round after round the boulder beat every opponent in under a few minutes.

"Now, the moment you've all been waiting for! The boulder vs your champion, the blind bandit!" Xin Fu announced. The blind bandit looked about twelve years old, she had black hair and was holding up the champion's belt, I already liked her, I don't know why but I did.

"She can't really be blind, it's just part of her character right?" Katara asked.

"I think she is." I said.

"I think she is…GOING DOWN!" Sokka yelled.

"I think she is going to win." I said. Sokka looked at me in disbelief and what looked like anger.

"The boulder feels conflicted about fighting a young blind girl." The boulder said.

"Sounds to me like you're scared boulder!" the blind bandit accused. The boulder frowned angrily.

"The boulder is over his conflicted feelings and now he's ready to bury you in a rockalanch!" the boulder said.

"Whenever you're ready the pebble!" the blind bandit mocked. She started laughing, I saw Aang gasp.

"It's on!" the boulder said. He went and stepped forward with one foot. The blind bandit put forward her foot and got ready, she wasn't attacking, she was waiting. The boulder lifted his other foot, ready to bring it down hard, when his foot was in midair the blind bandit kicked her foot into the dirt so that when the boulder's foot came down she pushed him into the splits. Sokka frowned.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" The boulder yelled in pain. She moved her hand a little and sliced in mid air, three small pillars shot out of the ground and hit the boulder out of the ring.

"Your winner, and still the champion, the blind bandit!" Xin Fu yelled.

"Dooohhhh." Sokka complained, he then started to throw a tantrum.

"How did she do that?" Katara asked.

"She waited." Aang said.

"And listened." I added. Xin Fu jumped down with a bag of something in his hand.

"To make things a little more interesting, I'm offering up this sack of gold pieces to anyone who can defeat the blind bandit!" Xin Fu yelled. Nobody put their hand up. "What, no one dares to face her?!"

"I WILL!" I heard someone yell. I face palmed, it was Aang. He walked up onto the ring grinning like an idiot. Xin Fu jumped back to his seat.

"Go Aang! Avenge the boulder!" Sokka yelled. I punched Sokka on the shoulder again.

"Do people really want to see two little girls fighting out here?!" the blind bandit mocked.

"Ooooh." The crowd said.

"I don't really want to fight you, I wanna talk to you." Aang said.

"BOOOOOOOOO, NO TALKING!" Sokka yelled.

"Don't boo him." Katara scolded.

"Can I?" I asked.

"Yeah." Katara sighed. I punched Sokka off of his seat again. Aang stepped forward, the blind bandit shot him off of a pillar, Aang flew up and came back down, but he landed on the floor softly. I knew now that she fought by somehow feeling vibrations or something.

"Somebody's a little light on his feet." The blind bandit said "What's your fighting name, the fancy dancer?" Aang shrugged. He was shot off of a pillar again, and again he cushioned his fall with air bending. "Where'd you go?" she asked herself.

"Please wait." Aang said, idiot, now she knows where you are.

"There you are." She said. She pulled up a boulder and shot it at him. He used an air blast to blow the boulder away, then her, she flew off of the ring. I'm pretty sure everyone was shocked. Everyone cheered, I saw him run after the blind bandit. She opened a hole in the wall and walked out before closing it back up. Aang went back onto the ring where he would be presented with his awards. Sokka ran up and grabbed the rewards instead. Katara and I walked up after him; I punched him again, not hard enough to push him over though.

"Let's go champ." Sokka said. The next day we walked around town trying to find the blind bandit. Kaida ran alongside me, being invisible, for some reason she couldn't fly, no matter how hard she tried. Patch was sleeping on my shoulder; his tail was wrapped around my neck like a scarf. "You know what, now I'm really glad I bought this bag, it matches the belt perfectly." Sokka said, he was wearing the champion's belt.

"That is a big relief." Katara said.

"If we wanna find the blind bandit, the earth bending academy is a good place to start." Aang said. When we walked in the two boys that Katara and I froze to the wall the day before were practicing, they were stabbing their hands into pots of sand.

"Oh great, you again." One of them said. Katara and I narrowed our eyes, they screamed like little girls and fell backwards.

"Yeah, I didn't think so." Katara said.

"Nicely done." Sokka complimented.

"Hey, you're the kid who beat the blind bandit." The other student said.

"We need to talk to her." Aang said.

"Do you guys know where she lives?" I asked.

"The blind bandit is a mystery, she's shows up to fight then disappears." The student said.

"Let us handle this." I said.

"You're not telling us everything!" Katara yelled angrily.

"No no, I swear it's true." The other student said "No one knows where she goes, or who she really is."

"That must be because we're asking about the wrong person." Aang said "In my vision, I saw a girl in a white dress with a pet flying boar, know anybody like that?"

"Well, a flying boar is a symbol of the Beifong family, they're the richest people in town, probably the whole world." The student said. Hah, I bet that my family was the richest.

"Yeah, but they don't have a daughter." The other student said.

"Flying boar is good enough for me." Aang said excitedly.

"It is amazing what get's you exited." I said.

"Let's check it out." Aang said, we went to go and walk away.

"Yeah, you better leave." The student said.

"Hey, I got my eye on you." I said threatingly.

"We're watching." Katara said.

"Water tribe." Sokka whispered on the way out. We walked to the Beifong family home. There was a giant set of big wooden doors with the Beifong symbol above them.

"That's the flying boar from my vision." Aang said happily. We were hiding behind a mound of dirt.

"Well, then let' go." I said. We jumped over the wall and hid behind a bush, we looked at the door. I felt a rumbling noise, suddenly a small mound of dirt kicked us up in the air, I had practiced this with Ty Lee when I was younger. I did a flip in mid air and landed on my feet. I looked at the others, Sokka had face planted into the ground, Katara and Aang had landed in some bushes.

"What are you doing here twinkle toes?" I heard a familiar voice say, it was the blind bandit. She was wearing a girly dress and had her hair nice and neat.

"How'd you know it was me?" Aang asked.

"Don't answer to twinkle toes, it's not manly." Sokka said.

"You're the one who's bag matches his belt." Katara said. I pulled Sokka up and then punched him back down to the floor.

"Why are you so violent?" Sokka groaned.

"It runs in the family." I shrugged.

"How did you find me?" the blind bandit asked.

Aang explained "Well, a crazy king told me I have to find an earth bender who listens to the earth, and then I had a vision in a magic swamp and-"

"What Aang is trying to say is he's the avatar and if he doesn't master earth bending soon he won't be able to defeat the fire lord." Katara said.

"Not my problem." The blind bandit said "Now get out of here." She started to walk forward but stopped "What is that?!" she asked. I frowned, then I remembered, Kaida.

"That's my dragon." I said.

"It doesn't matter, anyway, if you don't go I'll call the guards." She said.

"Look, we all have to do our part to win the war and yours is to teach Aang earth bending." Sokka said.

"Guards! Guards help!" she yelled, we quickly ran away.

"Toph, what happened?" a guard asked.

"I thought I heard someone, I got scared." She said.

"You know your father doesn't want you wandering the grounds without supervision Toph." The guard said, the guards led her way. Next we tried Aang's new plan, and I have to admit, it was a good one. We were going to be visitors, Aang played the avatar card. We were let in and invited to the table for dinner. Kaida snuck in beside me and was under my chair. While Sokka stuffed his face I ate politely and snuck down small pieces of meat to Kaida. A guard put a bowl of smoking hot soup in front of Toph.

"Blow on it, its too hot for her." Toph's father said.

"Allow me." Aang said politely, he blew a small tornado onto Toph's food. While the Beifong family clapped prissily I rolled my eyes and continued eating.

"Avatar Aang, it's an honour to have you visit us." Toph's mother said.

"In your opinion, how much longer do you think the war will last?" Toph's father asked.

"I'd like to defeat the fire lord by the end of summer, but I can't do that without finding an earth bending teacher first." Aang said slyly.

"Well, master Yu," Toph's father said, he gestured across the table to master Yu "Is the finest teacher in the land, he's been teaching Toph since she was little."

"Then she must be a great earth bender." I said.

"That's right, probably good enough to teach someone else." Aang said. "OW!" Aang yelled, I pretended to drop my spoon so that I could look on the floor, I saw that the earth was broken and leading to Aang's toe, ouch, I see what happened, earth bending kick. Toph's father looked between Toph and Aang confusedly.

"Toph is still learning the basics." Yu explained.

"Yes, and sadly because of her blindness I don't think she will ever become a true master." Toph's father said. Katara, Aang, Sokka and I frowned, that last statement even stopped Sokka from eating.

"Oh I'm sure she's better than you think she is." Aang said. I heard a rumbling; Aang's chair was pushed in a little, his face slammed into his bowl of soup. We all looked at Aang. Aang wiped his face and then grinned; he sneezed in the opposite direction, food splatted on Yu, Toph's mother and Toph.

"What's your problem?!" Toph yelled.

"What's your problem?!" Aang yelled.

"Well, shall we move to the living room for desert then?" Toph's mother asked. We had our desert and then we were allowed to stay the night in the Beifong's home. Kaida became visible and crawled under a blanket before going to sleep.

"Good night buddy." Aang said to Oppa, he rubbed his nose through the window. I saw Toph walked in, Aang screamed like a little girl. I walked over and punched his shoulder.

"Relax, look, I'm sorry about dinner, let's call truce, okay?" Toph said, she leant against the door frame. Aang got up and nodded. We took a walk outside.

"Even thought I was born blind I've never had a problem seeing. I see with earth bending, its kind of like seeing with my feet, I feel the vibrations in the earth and I can see where everyone is, you, Hotaru, that tree, even those ants." Toph said.

"That's amazing." Aang said.

"My parents don't understand. They've always treated me like I'm helpless." She said sadly.

"Is that why you became the blind bandit?" I asked.

"Yeah." She answered.

"Then why do you stay here, where you aren't happy?" I asked.

"They're my parents, where else am I supposed to go?" Toph asked.

"Look, I ran away from home a few years ago, I lived with penguins and then I met Aang, you could come with us?" I asked.

"Yeah, you guys get to go wherever you want, no one telling you what to do, that's the life." Toph said "It's just not my life." Suddenly she twisted her head to the side, she put her hand to the floor and exclaimed "We're being ambushed!" We started to run away. Suddenly something was burrowing through the floor in front of us, it was one of the earth benders from earth rumble 6. I got into a fighting stance, but everything went dark apart from one ray of moonlight shining through the bars of the cage I was in. Someone landed on top of the cages and pushed the bottom into the ground so we couldn't escape. I looked through the bars and saw all the benders from earth rumble 6, including Xin Fu.

"I think you kids owe me some money." Xin Fu said. A note was stabbed into the ground with a knife for Toph's parents and we were taken away to the arena of earth rumble 6. We were hauled into the air.

"You think you're so tough?! Why don't you come up here so I can smack that grin off your face!" Toph yelled.

"I'm not smiling." Xin Yu said blandly.

"Toph!" I heard someone yell, I looked at the entrance and saw Katara, Sokka, Yu and Toph's father.

"Here's your money, now let them go." Sokka said. Yu earth bended the money over to Xin Fu. Xin Fu examined the money and nodded, Toph was lowered down, and she ran to her father. The only problem was, Aang and I were still in the air.

"What about Aang and Hotaru?" Katara asked.

"I think the fire nation will pay a hefty price for the avatar, and the fire lord wants his daughter back home." Xin Fu said. I gasped, what?! He held up a poster, I had to squint to read it but it said 'Princess Hotaru of the fire nation, wanted home alive.' Next to it was a picture of me.

"Now, get out of my ring." Xin Fu growled. Katara and Sokka got ready to fight, but loads of earth benders came into the ring and also got ready to fight.

"Go, we'll be okay." Aang said. Sokka and Katara nodded, they walked off the ring. Aang and I were lowered down in out metal boxes and were being carried off when something stopped them from walking, I could only see the ceiling through my cage so I didn't know what was going on.

"Let him go!" I heard Toph say "I beat you all before and I'll do it again."

"The boulder takes issue with that comment." The boulder said. Aang and I were chucked aside. Katara and Sokka came forward and tried to undo our boxes. Sokka was hitting my box with a rock.

"Hit it harder!" I yelled.

"I'm trying." Sokka replied. Finally our boxes were opened, I had expected to come straight to a fight but Sokka shook his head and pointed. I saw a big cloud of dust that all the earth benders were in, all fighting, suddenly hippo came out swinging a disk of rock, the boulder was then thrown out of the cloud of dust. Toph came out into the open after them. Someone was also yelling in the air, Toph listened to it and turned the ground around her, Hippo and the boulder, the bender swinging swung into and knocked over Hippo and the boulder. Toph then knocked them out of the ring. Toph got rid of the dust and dirt cloud and was now facing the last bender, Xin Fu. She spat to the side in disgust. The circled around each other. Xin Fu kicked many boulders at her, she made a rock tent around herself in defence. When the attacks were over she kicked one side of the tent at Xin Fu, he jumped to the side and landed with his hand in the ground. He threw a boulder at her but she turned to the side so that the boulder missed her by a few centimetres. She turned around and made a powerful attack, knocking him out of the ring, she had defeated all of them. I ran over to Toph with Katara and Aang while Sokka passed out. We walked back to Toph's home and talked with her parents.

"Dad, I know its probably hard for you to see me this way but the obedient little helpless blind girl that you think I am just isn't me, I love fighting, I love being an earth bender and I'm really really good at it. I know I've kept my life a secret from you but you were keeping me secret from the whole world, you were doing it to protect me but I'm twelve years old and I've never had a real friend. So now that you know who I am, I hope it doesn't change the way you feel about me." Toph said sadly.

"Of course it doesn't change the way I feel about you Toph, it's made me realise something." Her father said.

"It has?" she asked hopefully.

"Yes, I've let you have far too much freedom. From now on you will be cared for and guarded 24 hours a day." Her father said.

"But dad?!" she cried.

"We're doing this for your own good Toph." Her mother said.

"Please escort the avatar and his friends out." Her father said "They are no longer welcome here."

"I'm sorry Toph." Aang said.

"I'm sorry too, good bye Aang." Toph said. I looked back and saw her crying.

"Don't worry, we'll find you guys a teacher." Katara said "There are plenty of amazing earth benders out there."

"Not like her." Aang said.

"I didn't just want her as a teacher, I wanted her as a friend." I said sadly. We got onto Oppa and prepared to leave. I heard panting behind us, I looked around and saw…Toph! She was dressed in regular clothing rather that a dress and had a bag with her.

"Toph!" Aang and I both exclaimed.

"What are you doing here?" Aang asked.

"My dad changed his mind, he said I was free to travel the world." Toph said happily.

"Well, we better get outta here before your dad changes his mind again." Sokka said.

"Good idea." Toph smiled.

"You're going to be a great teacher Toph." Aang said.

"And a great friend." I added.

"Speaking of which, Aang, I wanna show you something." Toph said.

"Okay!" Aang said, he jumped down from Oppa and landed on the floor. She kicked him up into a tree, he hung off of a branch.

"Now we're even." She said "Oh, and I'll take the belt back." She held her hand up, Sokka sighed and took the belt off. He chucked it down to her, but since it was in the air she couldn't see it, the heavy metal belt hit her down and whacked her to the floor. "Ow!" she said.

"Sorry." Sokka said, Aang fell down from the tree. When we helped them up onto Oppa Toph smiled and led down, we flew off into the night.


	27. Chapter 27

We had been travelling for about a week, in that time a lot had happened with Kaida, she could now fly and was just about big enough for me to ride. Also, she could talk! Well, only I could hear her, for some reason nobody else could. Sadie was getting really tired and could barely walk any more. At the moment we were in a small ditch camping. "Hey, you guys picked a great campsite." Toph said "The grass is so soft." I looked down and giggled, she was wriggling her toes around in the fur that Oppa had shed.

"That's not grass, Oppa's shedding." Sokka said.

"Oh gross!" Katara said.

"That's not gross, it's just a part of spring. You know, rebirth, flowers blooming, and Oppa gets a new coat." Aang said.

"Ahhhhh, the beauty of spring." Katara said sarcastically, Oppa licked his paw, he then stuck his tongue out, it was covered in fur. He sneezed, we then had fur rain. "Stop, Oppa! STOP!" Katara moaned, she spat out some hair from her mouth.

"It's not that bad Katara, it makes a great wig!" Sokka said, he stood up with a big beehive hairdo made out of Oppa's fur.

"And a great beard!" Aang said, he was wearing a fake beard.

"And the best moustache." I said, I was wearing a fake moustache, we all laughed at each other.

"I'm just glad we finally added someone else mature to the group because you three are disgusting." Katara said.

"Excuse me, does anyone have a razor?" Toph asked, she walked over to us "Because I got some hairy pits!" She lifted her arms up and showed a load of fuzzy Oppa fur pit hair. We all started laughing again, apart from Katara. Aang sneezed the fur off of him and us and slammed into the side of Oppa before falling face down. We laughed again, Katara frowned but couldn't help it, she started giggling. After that I went out to get some fire wood. I came back and put it in the middle of camp, Aang was setting up tents, Sokka had some meat for us to cook and Katara had gotten some water. I set up the fire pit and then set fire to the wood and made sure it was burning bright. Toph was leaning against a rock and chewing a blade of grass with her hands behind her head.

"So Toph, usually when setting up camp we try to divide up the work." Katara said.

"Hey, don't worry about me, I'm good to go." Toph said.

"Well actually what I'm trying to say is some of us might fetch water while someone else might set up the fire pit or put up the tent." Katara said. Momo came down and gave some nuts to Katara "Even Momo does his share."

"Katara, I'm fine, I can carry my own weight, I don't need a fire, I've already collected my own food, and look," Toph said, she made an earth tent shoot out of the ground "My tent's all set up."

Katara frowned "Well that's good for you but we still need t-"

"I don't understand, what's the problem here?!" Toph asked angrily.

"Never mind." Katara said, she walked away, looking quite frustrated. Aang used air bending to take off Oppa's saddle, it landed on Sokka.

"Oops, sorry." He said, he jumped down and pulled the saddle off of Sokka. Katara put down another jug of water. She looked over at Toph eating her food and walked over to her.

"Hey Toph, I wanted to apologise for earlier, I think we're all just a little tired and getting on each other's nerves." Katara said.

"Yeah, you do seem pretty tired." Toph said, I giggled, Katara looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

"Don't mind me, carry on." I said, trying desperately not to laugh.

"I meant all of us seem tired." I said.

"Well, good night." Toph said, she crawled into her tent.

"Good night." Katara said, defeated. Katara and Sokka slept in their tent, Aang on Oppa, Toph in her tent and me with Sadie, Kaida and Patch.

"There's something coming towards us!" Toph yelled. I woke up and yawned.

"What is it?" Aang asked.

"It feels like an avalanche but also not an avalanche." Toph said, she had her hand on the floor.

"Your powers of perception are frightening." Sokka said tiredly.

"Should we leave?" Katara asked.

"Five more minutes." I mumbled.

"Better safe than sorry." Aang said. I groaned and got up.

"We should go." Kaida said to me.

"Okay." I answered. I grabbed my rucksack and put some food in it and let Patch sit in my jacket pocket, he huddled up and went back to sleep. Sadie was on Oppa and I got onto Kaida. I didn't need a saddle or anything with her, she preferred it if I held onto her horns. I flew alongside Oppa.

"What is that?" Katara asked. I looked down, it was like a giant metal train thing, it billowed smoke into the air.

"Do you know what it is Kaida?" I asked.

"No." she answered. We flew for a long time, I saw Aang starting to get tired, I was used to not having much sleep, I lived with penguins for a few years, do you know how loud they are?! We flew down to another spot in the forest. I got up and led Kaida down, she was tired.

"Land sweet land." Toph said, she hugged the ground. "See you guys in the morning." She said.

"Actually, can you help us unload?" Katara asked.

"Really? You need me to help unload Sokka's funky smelling sleeping bag?" Toph asked. Sokka sniffed his sleeping bag and almost passed out.

"Well yeah, that and everything else. You're a part of our team now." Katara said.

"Look!" Toph said angrily, she pointed at Katara without looking at her "I didn't ask you to help unload my stuff, I'm carrying my own weight."

"That's not the point, ever since you joined us you've been nothing but selfish and unhelpful." Katara said angrily.

"WHAT?! Look here sugar queen, I gave up everything I had so that I could teach Aang earth bending so don't you talk to me about being selfish!" Toph said angrily. She made a three sided tent around herself.

"SUGAR QUEEN?!" Katara asked. Toph earth bended a forth side to the tent up in her face.

"D-did you just slam the door in my face?!" Katara yelled "How can you be so infuriating?!" she started to slam on the sides of the tent.

"Should we do something?" Aang asked.

"Hey, I'm just enjoying the show." Sokka smirked.

"Okay, okay, you both need to calm down." Aang said to Katara.

"Both?" she asked, she turned around "I'M COMPLETELY CALM!" she screeched.

"I can see that." Aang said, he shuffled away. We didn't even bother with tents or a fire, I just curled into my animals and the others got out a blanket and a pillow each.

"The stars sure are beautiful tonight, too bad you can't see them Toph!" Katara mocked. Toph grunted inside her tent, Katara was then kicked into the air by earth bending, then she fell back down on top of Sokka.

"Hey, how's a guy supposed to sleep with all this yelling and earth quaking?!" Sokka yelled. One of Toph's earth walls came down, she leant out.

"That thing is back!" she said.

"Well how far away is it, maybe we can close our eyes just for a few minutes?" I asked groggily.

"I don't think so Hotaru." Aang said, I looked past a few layers of trees and saw the smoke from before. I sighed and got up, I pulled my bag on my back and let Patch crawl inside my pocket, I made sure Sadie was safely on top of Oppa and then I got onto Kaida. We flew away from the giant metal thing.

"Seriously, what is that thing?" Katara asked.

"And how does it keep finding us?" Toph asked.

"I don't know but this time I'm gonna make sure we lose them. Hotaru, follow me." Aang said, I nodded. We flew through many mountains.

"Kaida?" I asked as we were flying.

"Yes?" she replied.

"Tell me about yourself, how old you are, and why you hatches when I used fire bending." I said.

"I'm over 400 years old, and I am a white dragon, we only hatch when we feel the one person in the world who can be our master holding us. You are my master." She said.

"How long does it take you to grow to your full size?" I asked.

"Only a few more weeks." She answered.

"Can you breath fire?" I asked.

"Only if I meet another dragon who knows the secret." She said.

"What secret?" I asked.

"You'll find out if you're worthy." She said, I nodded and hugged her neck. We flew to the top of a mountain and landed on a ledge. Oppa fell over straight away and went to sleep. I got Sadie up and sat her down on the floor. She went to sleep, she was more tired than usual.

"Okay, forget about setting up camp, I'm finding the softest pile of dirt and going to sleep." Sokka said.

"That's good because Toph wasn't going to help anyway." Katara said.

"Oh, I didn't realise baby Katara still needs someone to tuck her into bed." Katara said.

"Come on guys, there's something after us, and we don't know what or who it is." Aang said.

"It could be Zuko, we haven't seen him since the North Pole." Katara said.

"Who's Zuko?" Toph asked.

"Oh, just some angry freak with a pony tail who's tracked us all over the world." Sokka said.

"What's wrong with pony tails pony tail?" Katara asked.

"This, is a warriors wolf tail." Sokka said.

"Well it certainly tells the other warriors that you're fun and perky!" Katara exclaimed.

"Anyway, whoever's chasing us, they couldn't have followed us here, now would everyone just shush." Sokka asked. Momo ran over to the path on the mountain and started freaking out.

"Oh don't tell me." Sokka complained.

"Nooooooo. " I actually cried into Sadie's fur.

"That's impossible, there's no way they could have tracked us." Aang said.

"I can feel it with my own two feet!" Toph said.

"Well my feet want to go to sleep." I said. I looked up and saw the train thing at the end of the path.

"let's get out of here." Katara said.

"Maybe we should face them, find out who they are." Aang suggested "Who knows, maybe they're friendly."

"Always the optimist." Sokka slouched.

"Kaida, go invisible, don't let them know you're here, if we have to get away I'll ride Oppa." I said.

"Right." She replied, she went invisible. The train rolled up to us and screeched to a halt. The door opened, out came three mongoose dragons ridden by none other than Azula, Ty Lee and Mai. They started walking towards us.

"It's those three girls from Omashu!" Katara said.

"We can take em." Toph said "Three on four."

"Actually Toph, there's five of us." Sokka said.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't count you, you know, no bending and all." Toph shrugged.

"I CAN STILL FIGHT!" Sokka yelled.

"Three on…four plus Sokka." Toph said. He growled at her. Toph made the first move, she made rock shards shoot out of the floor, the mongoose dragons either dodged or ran over the

"Well, we wanted to find out who they were, we found out, now let's get outta here!" Sokka asked. I nodded, I quickly pushed Sadie up onto Oppa, I quickly grabbed my bag and jumped on myself. I saw Mai throw knives at Toph, Toph made a rock shield in front of her. Toph gave herself a boost onto Oppa.

"Yip yip." He said, we flew off.

"I can't believe those girls followed us all the way from Omashu." Katara said.

"I still think we could have taken em." Toph said. The group still didn't know that the leader of the three girls, Azula, was my sister.

"Are you kidding me, the crazy blue fire bending and the flying daggers are bad enough but last time we saw them one of those girls did something that took my bending away." Katara said, she sounded terrified.

"That was chi blocking." I said.

"Whatever it is, it's scary." She said.

"Oh no, the sun is rising, we've been up all night with no sleep." Sokka moaned, I looked to the side, the sun was just coming over the peak of a mountain.

"Kaida, you can come out now." I said.

"Thank you." I heard her reply, she then became visible again. I jumped off of Oppa with my bag and landed on her.

"Sokka, we'll be okay." Aang said.

"Are you sure?! I've never not slept before, what if I fall asleep now and something happens?! AND SOMETHING ALWAYS HAPPENS!" Sokka yelled crazily.

"Every time we land those girls are there, so we'll just have to keep flying." Katara said.

"We can't keep flying forever." Aang said. We kept flying in silence until about midday when Aang asked "So what's our plan?"

"Don't know, too tired to think." Toph moaned.

"I'm sure we'll come up with something after a short nap." Katara said.

"Come on!" I said enthusiastically.

"How are you even still awake?" Sokka groaned.

"Have you tried living with otter penguins?!" I asked.

"Fair enough." He answered. "Anyway, sleep time." Suddenly I saw them heading downwards sharply, had Oppa fallen asleep?

"What's going on?!" Toph exclaimed.

"Oppa fell asleep!" Aang answered. Aang crawled down Oppa's head until he got to his face. "Wake up buddy." He said. They were about to hit the floor when Oppa woke up and started flying again. They went through loads of trees and destroyed them before coming to a halt on the ground.

"Should we go down?" Kaida asked.

"Yes." I answered. We flew down to where the others were. Oppa was asleep.

"Oppa's exhausted." Aang said.

"Okay, we've put a lot of distance between us and them, the plan right now is to follow Oppa's lead and get some sleep." Sokka said.

"Of course we could have gotten some sleep earlier if Toph didn't have such issues." Katara said. Toph leapt up and slammed her hands down, breaking the rock.

"WHAT?!" She screeched.

"Alright, alright, everyone's exhausted, let's just get some rest." Aang said.

"No, I wanna hear what Katara has to say." Toph said "You think I have issues?"

"I'm just saying, maybe if you helped out earlier we could have set up our camp faster and gotten some sleep." Katara said "And then maybe we wouldn't have been in this situation!"

"You're blaming me for this?!" Toph yelled. Katara made the 'bring it on' gesture, Toph started to walk forward.

"No, no, she's not blaming you." Aang said.

"No, I'm blaming her!" Katara said.

"Hey," Toph said angrily, she pushed Aang out of the way "I never asked you for diddly doo da! I carry my own weight! Besides, if there's anyone to blame it's sheddy over here!"

"What? You're blaming Oppa?!" Aang asked.

"Yeah, you wanna know how they keep finding us?! He's leaving a trail everywhere we go!" Toph said, she took a tuft of fur off of Oppa and let it fly in the wind.

"How dare you blame Oppa, he's saved your life three times today, if there's anyone to blame it's you, you're always talking about how you carry your own weight, but you're not, he is, Oppa's carrying your weight! He never had a problem flying when it was just the four of us!" Aang yelled angrily.

"I'm outta here." Toph said. She kicked up her bag and caught it, she started to walk away.

"Please stay Toph." I said.

"Hotaru, you're the only one who doesn't bug me here, I'm sorry but bye!" she said, she left.

"Wait!" Sokka said, he stood in front of her, she earth bended him out of the way.

"What did I just do?!" Aang yelled "I can't believe I yelled at my earth bending teacher, now she's gone."

"I know, we're all just trying to get used to each other, and I was so mean to her." Katara said.

"Yeah, you two were pretty much jerks." Sokka said, he sipped his drink.

"Thanks Sokka." Katara said.

"No problem." He smiled.

"We need to find Toph and apologise." Katara said.

"Okay, but what are we going to do about the tank full of dangerous ladies chasing us?" Sokka asked. Aang looked at Oppa's fur.

"I have an idea." He said. We took Oppa to a river and used water bending to wash him, I brushed while Aang and Katara washed away the fur, Sokka and Momo also helped brush him. Patch and Sadie swam around in the water, she seemed a lot happier in the water. Kaida was tired from flying so she slept under a tree while we were doing this. "Toph was right, Oppa's fur was leaving a trail straight to us, but now that he's clean, no more trail." Aang said.

"Are you sure he's okay to fly?" Katara asked.

"He'll be fine as long as we leave his saddle and all our stuff here. Hotaru and I are going to take Oppa's fur and lead the tank off course." Aang said. The others nodded and got onto Oppa, Patch was in my pocket. They flew but knocked the top of some trees off. I left my bag of stuff with all of the other stuff. I grabbed an empty satchel and stuffed it with Oppa's fur, Aang did the same thing. Aang used his glider and I got onto Kaida. As I flew I let go of tufts of fur, our bags were empty by the time we got to an abandoned town. We emptied out bags out at the edge of the town.

"Okay, let's go and find the others." I said.

"Wait, I want to stay here, we need to face those girls." Aang said. He sat at the end of the fake trail.

"What should I do Kaida?" I asked.

"He's your friend, stay with him." She said. I smiled and nodded, I hugged her.

"Go hide, don't come out until I call you." I said. She nodded and went outside the walls of the town and hid. I sat down next to Aang, we didn't talk though. As the sun was about to set we saw someone in the distance, it was Azula. She rode into town and looked at Aang.

"Alright, you've caught me, now who are you and what do you want?!" Aang asked, Azula glanced in my direction as if to say 'what? You didn't tell him?'

"You mean you haven't guessed. You don't see the family resemblance? Here's a hint." Azula said, she put her hand over her eye "I must find the avatar to restore my honour." She said in a fake voice, she was obviously impersonating Zuko. Aang looked at her with a blank expression, he blinked. "It's okay, you can laugh, it's funny." She said.

"So what now?" Aang asked.

"Now? Now it's over, you're tired and you have no place to go, you can run, but I'll catch you." She said.

"I'm not running." Aang said, he stood up, I grinned and stood next to him. I saw Azula give a slight smiled.

"Do you really want to fight me?" Azula asked. I saw someone run in on an ostrich horse.

"Yes, I really do." I saw the guy say, it was Zuko.

"Zuko." Aang said.

"Really?" I asked sarcastically.

"I was wondering when you'd show up Zuzu." Azula said. Aang and I sniggered.

"Zuzu?" Aang asked.

"Back off Azula, he's mine." Zuko said, he put one hand up to us and one up to Azula.

"I'm not going anywhere." Azula said, she raised one hand to Zuko and one to Aang. I frowned and did the same thing, at least I had been practicing my fire bending. Aang raised his staff. We all looked at one another, getting ready.

"Well, this is a nice family reunion." Azula said. I rolled my eyes and carried on watching the others. Suddenly Azula blasted a small ball of blue fire at Zuko, he tried to block it but was knocked into one of the old brittle houses. Aang gasped and went to fly away, Azula brought down fire over the top of him, he had to block it with his staff so he fell off. Azula jumped onto a roof and ran towards him, she landed on his staff, he ran away without it. While Aang dodged all the fire blasts I blocked them and sent my own at my brother and sister. What was a fight between all of us was suddenly turned into one between Azula and Zuko, eventually she knocked him back and brought Aang and I back into it. I saw Azula and Aang disappear inside a building. I ran in after them. I saw that the floor was missing so I shuffled around the outside of the room. Zuko ran straight in yelling, he fell to the floor with a loud THUD! Aang looked at me, I shrugged. I saw that Azula was in the corner and Aang was hovering on a ball in midair. His air ball started to disappear. Azula threw some fire at him, he ran around the outside and knocked Azula off the ledge. Aang and I ran out the door and down some steps, I saw Zuko go flying through a wall, Azula appeared out of the hole he had made. Aang jumped from wall to wall dodging the fire. I came after him doing the same thing. We were on the corner of a building when that corner fell off. Aang jumped and landed safely on the remaining house, he held his arm out and grabbed my hand, he pulled my up. But then Azula had to ruin it and break that part of the house off, both Aang and I fell to the ground under some wood, we were both trapped, it was Aang's arm and my leg. I tried to get the wood off but it was stuck. Azula lit the edges of the room on fire. Azula was about to make a fatal strike when Katara appeared in background and used water to wrap around Azula's wrist, she pulled Azula backwards and broke the wood covering me and Aang. I breathed in and took in all the flames and sent them flying in Azula's direction, she blocked it easily.  
>"Katara!" Aang exclaimed. Azula got up and tried to whip Katara with some fire, Katara ran away out the door and was followed by Azula. I walked out and saw Sokka as well, we started to close in on Azula. Azula tried to hit Aang with some fire but he jumped over the blast. Azula was having trouble holding us all off at once. We were backing her into an alley, suddenly she slid to the side and fell to the floor.<p>

"I thought you guys could use a little help." Toph said form behind Azula.

"Thanks." Katara said. All of us walked to Azula, she tried to run but ran into uncle! Now Zuko, Uncle, Toph, Sokka, Katara and I were backing Azula into a corner.

"Well, look at this, enemies and traitors, all working together, I'm done, I know when I'm beaten, you got me, a princess surrenders with honour." Azula said, she put her hands up. Suddenly she stepped forward and sent a very powerful blast at Uncle, he span and fell unconscious to the ground.

"NO!" Zuko yelled. We all blasted out elements at her, Zuko and I with fire, Toph with earth, Katara with water and Aang with air. She defended herself with loads of fire, a cloud of black boggy smoke erupted and clouded our vision. When it cleared I looked around, Azula was gone. Zuko was knelt down by Uncle. We walked over cautiously. "GET AWAY FROM US!" Zuko yelled. Toph was shaking.

"Zuko, I can help." Katara said.

"LEAVE!" he yelled, he sent a wave of fire at us. We ducked under it.

"Kaida!" I yelled. I saw her run over, Uncle looked at her and smiled for some reason. We all ran away from the abandoned and burnt town. That night we went to the top of a mountain and didn't bother setting up camp. We landed, I slipped off of Kaida and led on the floor and went to sleep, finally.


	28. Chapter 28

We were camping in a canyon, it was the day Aang and I started to learn to earth bending. "Today is the day!" Aang said. "Can you believe it? After all that time searching for a teacher I'm finally starting earth bending, and this place, it's perfect, don't you think?" Aang asked Sokka. Sokka said nothing "Sokka?" Aang asked again. We weren't answering because we were all still in bed. He groaned and glared up at Aang. "Oh, you're still sleeping, huh?" Aang asked. I smiled and sat up, I stretched and got up. "Sorry." Aang whispered. I got up and brung my hair into a pony tail and then tied it into a messy bun.

"Good morning earth bending students!" Toph yelled, her tent burst open.

"Good morning Sifu Toph." Aang said.

"Hey, you never call me Sifu Katara." Katara said sleepily.

"Well, if you think I should?" Aang said.

"No way." I said when she looked at me. Sokka growled.

"Sorry snoozles," Toph said, she then spoke quietly "We'll do our earth bending as quietly as we can." She then kicked the floor and Sokka flew up into the air. Kaida caught him in her mouth, she was quite big now. She was as long as Oppa. Kaida dropped Sokka, he hopped away in his sleeping bag angrily.

"So what move are you gonna teach me first, rockalanch, the trembler, oh I know! Maybe I can learn to make a whirlpool out of land!" Aang said.

"Let's start with move a rock."Toph said plainly.

"Sounds good, sounds good." Aang said. We walked in front of some boulders.

"The key to earth bending is your stance, you've gotta be steady and strong, rock is a stubborn element, I think Hotaru's already got the stubborn part down." Toph said. Aang bent down like Toph and so did I. "If you're going to move it, you've gotta be like a rock yourself." Toph said, she pushed Aang over easily, proving that he didn't have a strong enough stance. "That's good Hotaru." She said.

"Thanks." I said.

"Like a rock, got it." Aang said.

"Good, now the actual motion of this one is pretty simple." Toph said, she stepped forward and punched the rock forward "Okay, you ready to give it a try?" she asked. Aang was going first.

"I'm ready." He said. He went to go and punch the rock; he flew backwards and slammed into Oppa.

"Rock beats air bender." Sokka said, he was sitting up on a ledge in his sleeping bag. I then took my go, I focused on my chi and stepped forward, I made my stance as strong as a rock and punched the boulder with all my force, the boulder flew forward and smashed against the wall, I fist punched the air.

"Good, very good." Toph said.

"Thanks." I bowed. Aang walked back over.

"I don't see what went wrong, he did it exactly the way you did." Katara said.

"Maybe there's another way?" Aang asked.

"Hotaru?" Toph asked.

"Huh?" I answered.

"What do you think about there being another way?" Toph asked.

"I don't think there is one, you move it or you don't." I shrugged.

"What if I came at the boulder with a different angle?" Aang asked.

"No, Hotaru was right, this is the problem, you've got to stop thinking like an air bender, there's no different angle, no clever solution, no trickety trick that's going to move that rock." Toph said, she pushed Aang over "You've got to face it head on and when I say head on I mean like this!" she said, she jumped up and head butted a massive boulder to pieces. Kaida looked at me, I shrugged.

"I have no idea." I said to Kaida.

"Whoa!" Aang said in reply to Toph's head butt. I walked over to Aang and rubbed his shoulder. "How do you find it so easy?!" He asked.

"I've always been taught never to run away, and always to just go through with things." I said. Aang sighed and fell to the floor. Next we were carrying boulders, they were heavy but it was doable.

"Keep your knees high twinkle toes!" Toph yelled. She earth bended pillars under Aang's feet. Next we had to dig our hands into rock. I sighed and watched Aang inspect the dirt, I punched his shoulder.

"Just do it." I said, I rubbed my hands together and dug them into the rock. I couldn't go as deep or as fast as Toph but I could still do it. When Aang tried he almost broke his hand. Next we had to stay as solid as rocks no matter what Toph did, which kind of scared both of us. Suddenly Toph jumped up behind us.

"Rock slide!" she yelled, Aang fell over, I gasped and went to move but sucked my breath in and stayed still. She kicked Aang back up and then poked his head. Next we were blind folded, I had my knife and Aang had Sokka's club. Toph kicked up pillars and we had to hit them, while Aang got 1 out of 5 hits I got 4 out of 5 hits. Toph nodded. Next walls were built around us, Toph drew a line on the ground, she used a suit of rock and moved towards us, we would have to push her back over the line. Aang and I put our hands against her, she pushed us back to start with but then we started to push her back the other way, after a lot of effort and sweating we got her over the line. Next we were raised on high pillars, we were given a rock stone each with a hole in the top so that we could hold it, I chucked it up with my right hand and caught it with my left hand, with this we had to cushion it in and make sure our arms didn't snap off. "Rock slide!" she yelled, she sent up vibrations through the pillars, we held onto the stone and stood on the pillars. Toph raised herself up and nodded, Aang and I gave each other a high five.

"This time we're going to try something a little different, instead of moving a rock, you're going to stop a rock, get in your horse stances!" Toph commanded, I nodded and bent down a few metres away from Aang. "I'm going to roll that boulder down that gap, if you have the attitude of an earth bender you'll stay in your stance and stop the rock, like this!" She put her hands out and lent slightly to the side. I nodded and got ready; there were two boulders and two gaps.

"Sorry Toph, but are you sure this is the best way to teach these two earth bending?" Katara asked.

"I'm glad you said something, actually there is a better way," Toph said, she tied cloth around our eyes so we couldn't see "This way you'll really have to sense the vibrations of the boulder to stop it. Thank you Katara." Toph said, she gave Katara a thumb up.

"Yeah, thanks Katara." Aang said angrily. Katara laughed guiltily and moved away. I took a deep breath in and listened. I heard Toph push the boulders. I waited until mine got to me before I held my hands out and punched the boulder to pieces; I smiled and took my blind fold up. I saw that Aang had dodged his boulder rather than standing her ground. "I guess I just panicked." Aang said "I don't know what to say."

"There's nothing to say! You blew it! You had a perfect stance and perfect form but when it came right down to it you didn't have the guts!" Toph yelled, she pushed him to the floor. "Hotaru here faced it like an earth bender!"

"I know, I'm sorry." Aang said.

"Yeah you are sorry!" Toph yelled "If you're not tough enough to stop the rock then you could at least give it the pleasure of smushing you instead of jumping out of the way like a jelly boned wimp! Now, do you have what it takes to face that rock like an earth bender?!"

"No, I don't think I do." Aang said sadly, and a little ashamed.

"Aang, it's no big deal, you can take a break and try earth bending again when you're ready, besides, you still have a lot of water bending to work on, okay?" Katara asked kindly.

"Yeah, that sounds good." Aang said.

"Yeah whatever, go and splash around until you feel better." Toph said. I walked over to Sadie and smiled I hugged her snout.

"Go and play in the water with Aang and Katara." I said. I grabbed my fire bending scrolls and put them on a rock. I was on the last move of the third scroll out of five. I was doing quite well.

"Why don't you come and practice with us?" I heard Katara asked.

"I need to practice fire bending." I said.

"Why do you spend so much time on fire bending?" She asked.

"Oh I'm sorry, I only have these scrolls so unless you want to teach me fire bending I need to practice." I said angrily, she frowned sadly. "I'm sorry, fire bending is dangerous, hot and difficult, it gets me really fired up." I said.

"Okay, Aang and I will be in the pond, bye." She said. I nodded and waved before getting back to my fire bending. When sundown came I put my scrolls away and put them into my bag. I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around and saw Katara leading back a soaking wet Sadie, she looked really happy. Katara, however, looked worried.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Sokka went out hunting this morning and hasn't come back yet." She said.

"I'll ride Kaida." I said, Sadie looked almost sad when I said that, I smiled and hugged her neck. I hopped onto Kaida and rode around the skies, when I finally saw Sokka I saw that Aang was being attacked by a giant saber tooth moose lion protecting Sokka, who was trapped up to his shoulders in a crack in the ground. I landed and went to go and help but I felt someone grab my arm.

"Wait." I heard Toph say. I nodded and sat down on the rock next to her.

"Please Aang; you have to earth bend me out of here, it's the only way!" Sokka pleaded. Aang tried to earth bend but it didn't work, his form was too loose. The saber tooth moose lion got ready to charge again.

"Oh no." Aang exclaimed. He jumped up onto a rock and yelled "Woohoo, look at me!" he started to dance on the rock, he was trying to distract the moose lion. The moose lion started to run at Sokka again, Aang used air bending to dodge the moose lion and to push it away. I saw why Toph was watching now, she was waiting for Aang to act like an earth bender.

"Please don't leave me again." Sokka whimpered.

"I won't." Aang said firmly. Aang waited and stood his ground before attacking the moose lion directly with air. The moose lion got up and walked away in shame. Toph started clapping, alerting them to her presence.

"What are you doing here?" Sokka asked.

"Just enjoying the show." Toph replied smugly.

"What?! You were there the whole time?" Aang asked.

"Pretty much." Toph said.

"Why didn't you do something?" Aang complained "Sokka was in trouble. I was in trouble, you could have gotten him out and helped him get away."

"Guess it just didn't occur to me." She smirked. She pulled out a nut and put it in front of her, she them pulled out Aang's staff and prepared to crack the nut with it. Aang caught it in midair.

"Enough! I want my staff back!" Aang demanded.

"Do it now." Toph said.

"What?" Aang asked.

"Earth bend." I said.

"Earth bend twinkle toes." Toph repeated "You just stood your ground against a crazy beast and even more impressive you stood your ground against me, you've got stuff."

"But-"  
>"DO IT!" Toph yelled. Aang stamped his foot on the floor and punched a boulder, it went flying forward. "You did it!" Toph exclaimed.<p>

"Congrats dude, you're an earth bender." I said.

"I can't believe it!" Aang said happily.

"Awwww, this is really a wonderful touching moment so would you get me outta here so I can give all three of you a big snugly hug." Sokka said.

"No problem Sokka." Aang said confidently.

"Actually you should probably let me do that, you're still a little new to this, you might accidently crush him." Toph said.

"Yeah, no crushing please." Sokka smiled. Toph kicked the floor, Sokka was pushed half way out the hole, she grabbed his hair and dragged him out. I smiled and walked away with Toph, Kaida followed us.

"You found him!" Katara said when she saw us.

"The whole time I was in that hole, not knowing if I would live or die, it makes a man think about what's really important, I realised-" Sokka said.

"Hey Katara look what I can do!" Aang said. He punched a piece of rock off of a pillar.

"You did it! I knew you would." Katara said "You tried the positive reinforcement didn't you?"

"Yup, it works wonders." Toph said. I saw Oppa roar.

"Oppa, Oppa, I can earth bend now, the key is being completely rooted, physically and mentally unmovable." Aang said, Oppa licked him and he fell over. We all laughed.


	29. Chapter 29

"What's out here?" Sokka asked. We were in the middle of a desert, there were holes dotting the ground.

"A lot actually," Toph said "There's hundreds of little-"  
>"Shhhh, I know you can see underground but don't ruin the surprise." Aang said "Just watch." He blew a note on the flute he was holding. A little gofer came out of the ground and repeated the note. "Hahaha, yeah!" Aang said enthusiastically. He blew a higher note, a gofer came out of the ground and repeated it. He kept doing different notes "I'm putting an orchestra together!" he exclaimed.<p>

"Orchestra huh? Well la dee da." Sokka said sarcastically. Momo jumped down one of the holes along with patch, they tried to catch the gofers. "This is great an all but don't we have more important things to worry about, we should be making plans." Sokka said.

"We did make plans, we're all picking mini vacations." Toph said.

"There's no time for vacations." Sokka said.

"I'm learning the elements as fast as I can, I practice hard every day with Toph and Katara, I've been training my arrow off." Aang said.

"Yeah, what's wrong with having a little fun during our down time?" Katara asked.

"Even if you do master all of the elements then what? It's not like we have a map of the fire nation, should we just head west until we reach the fire lord's house?" Sokka asked "Knock knock, hello fire lord, anybody home?" Sokka mocked "I don't think so! We need some intelligence if we're going to win this war." Sokka said. Aang blew a note on his flute and laughed as it was repeated by a chubby gofer.

"Alright, we'll finish out vacations and then we'll look for Sokka's intelligence." Katara smirked, I laughed.

"It's your turn Hotaru, where do you want to go?" Aang asked.

"Everywhere I want to go is deep in the fire nation, I don't think you guys want to go there so Katara can have her holiday now." I shrugged.

"Okay, Katara, you can choose then." Aang said, he opened a map for her, she studied it.

"How about the misty palms oasis, that sounds refreshing." Katara said.

"Oh yeah I've been there, it's a pristine natural ice spring and I usually don't use the word pristine, it's one of nature's wonders." Aang said.

When we got there I wasn't seeing too much wonder, the houses were small and broken, bars were everywhere and the spring was so small and being licked by a dog. "Must of changed ownership since I was here." Aang said. He laughed shamefully. As we walked through the gate the sign fell down behind us.

"Kaida, hide and wait here." I said.

"See you soon." She said. I nodded and left as she went invisible, she was a lot bigger now and a lot faster at flying. Standing outside the bar were sand benders, they were earth benders that lived in the desert and bent the sand. The wore gray clothes and bandages around their heads. As we walked in one of the sand benders spat at Sokka's feet and wiped his mouth. I went to go and storm over to him but Katara grabbed my elbow and pulled me inside.

"Leave him alone." She said.

"Fine but if I see his face again he's going down." I said. On the tables were people who were sleeping and drinking.

"One mango please." Someone asked at the desk, he was wearing something to protect him from the sun and he had a giant backpack on. The guy at the counter flashed his swords and cut up all the fruit into a smoothie.

"I don't see anything wrong by buying one of those fruity beverages while we plan our strategy." Sokka said, he ran over to the counter. The guy who had just brought the smoothie walked forward and into Aang, his drink spilt all over Aang.

"No worries, I clean up easy." Aang said. He blew air from himself and dried his clothes.

"Why is it always me?!" I asked, I looked down and saw the drink all over me. I used water bending to pull it out.

"You're a living relic." The man said to Aang.

"Thanks, I try." Aang shrugged.

"An air nomad, right in front of me." The man said, he rubbed his chin "Professor Zei, head of anthropology at Ba Sing Se University. Tell me, which of the air temples do you hail from?" he grabbed Aang's arm and pointed at his tattoos.

"The southern temple." Aang said. The guy measured Aang's head.

"Oh splendid, now tell me, what was the primary agricultural product of your people?" Zei asked.

"Uh-are fruit pies an agricultural product?" Aang asked.

"How truly fascinating." Zei said "That is one for the journal." He pulled out a worn out leather book and started to scribble down notes.

"So professor, you're obviously a well travelled guy, do you have a more current map, ours seems to be a little dated." Sokka said. He handed me a smoothie, I gulped it down happily.

"Certainly." Zei said, he laid his map down on the table. Sokka looked over it.

"What, no fire nation?" Sokka asked "Doesn't anyone have a good map of that place?"

"You've made a lot of trips into the desert." Katara said, she pointed at the map, I looked over it and saw many marked on trails all into different places.

"All in vain I'm afraid, I found lost civilisations all over the earth kingdom but I haven't managed to find the crown jewel Wan Shi Tong's library." Zei said.

"You spent years walking through the desert to find some guy's library?" Toph asked.

"This library is worth more than gold little lady, it is said to contain a vast collection of knowledge and knowledge…is priceless." Zei said.

"Mmmm, sounds like good times." Toph said sarcastically.

"Oh it is, according to legend it was built by the great knowledge spirit Wan Shi Tong, with the help of his foxy knowledge seekers." Zei said.

"Ohhh, so this spirit has attractive assistants huh?" Sokka asked, I punched his shoulder.

"I think he means they look like actual foxes Sokka." Katara said.

"You're both right, handsome little creatures." Zei said. "Wan Shi Tong and his knowledge seekers collected books from all over the world and put them on display for mankind to read so that we might better ourselves."

"If this place has books from places all over the world do you think they've got info on the fire nation?" Sokka asked "A map maybe?"

"I wouldn't know, but if such a thing exists it's in Wan Shi Tong's library." Zei said.

"Then it's settled, Aang, I do believe it's my turn, I'd like to spend my vacation…AT THE LIBRARY!" Sokka said happily.

"Uh hey, what about me? When do I get to pick?" Toph asked.

"You've gotta work here a little longer before you qualify for vacation time." Sokka said. Toph slammed her drink on the table.

"Of course there's the matter of finding it, I've made several trips into the Si Wong desert and almost died each time. I'm afraid that desert's impossible to cross." Zei said.

"Professor, would you like to see our sky bison?" I asked.

"A sky bison?! You actually have one?!" Zei asked. When we went out we saw Oppa being gained on by sand benders.

"Sand benders, shoo, away from the bison!" Zei asked. The backed away, I made the 'I got my eye on you' signal to them. They went away on a sand boat powered by sand bending. The professor got onto Oppa. "Aren't you getting on?" Zei asked me.

"Me? No, I prefer to travel by dragon." I said. He gasped, as if I wasn't telling the truth. "Kaida!" I shouted. She appeared; she appeared to be glowing white in the strong sunlight. I climbed on her and we took off. It was scorching hot so I took off my jacket and put it into my bag. The professor climbed down to Oppa's head.

"Tell me sky bison; are you the last of your breed?" Zei asked Oppa. Oppa roared, Zei laughed "Delightful, I only wish I spoke his tongue, oh the stories this beast could tell." Zei stoked Oppa's fur, Momo jumped up and made some sounds "Shush chatty monkey." Zei said.

"He's got a few screws loose." Kaida said.

"Tell me about it." I laughed.

"Who's she talking to?" Zei asked while I was speaking with Kaida.

"Her dragon, only she can hear her though." Sokka shrugged.

"Interesting." Zei said, he rubbed his chin.

"It shouldn't be too hard to find a place like this out here." Aang said. We carried on flying for a while.

"Awwww, does this place even exist?!" Toph complained.

"Some say it doesn't." Zei said.

"WHAT?!" I screeched.

"Shouldn't you have mentioned that before?" Toph asked. She fell over in boredom. We carried on flying. "There it is!" Toph exclaimed, the others clambered to the edge to see the library, but, they were idiots, Toph was blind. They all frowned angrily at her "That's what it will sound like when one of you spots it." She said in an annoyed voice, she waved her hand in front of her eyes, I laughed.

"It shouldn't be that hard to find a giant ornate building from the air." Katara said, Sokka looked through his telescope.

"Down there." Sokka said, he pointed to a small spire coming out of the ground. We flew down and landed next to it.

"Forget it, it's obviously not what we're looking for." Katara said "The building in this drawing is enormous." Something flashed in my eyes, I looked onto a hill in the distance, it looked like a fox carrying a scroll.

"What kind of animal is that?" Sokka asked, the fox carried on walking and to my surprise it walked right up the wall of the spire and into the window up the top.

"I think that was one of the knowledge seekers." Zei said "We must be close to the library."

"No, this is the library." Sokka said. "Look." He pointed to the spire in front of us and then the small spire on the top of the building in the picture, they were identical. "It's completely buried." He said solemnly.

"The library is buried?!" Zei exclaimed "My life's ambition is now full of sand. Well, time to start excavating." He pulled out a tiny spade and started digging. Toph put her hand on the side of the building.

"Actually that won't be necessary, the inside seems to be completely intact and it's huge." Toph said.

"That fox thingy went through a window, I say we climb up there and give it a look." Sokka said.

"I say you guys go ahead without me." Toph said.

"You got something against libraries?" Katara asked, I face palmed.

"I've held books before and I gotta tell you, they don't exactly do it for me." Toph said.

"Oh right, sorry." Katara said.

"Let me know if they have something you can listen to." Toph smiled. Sokka tied a rope to the end of his boomerang and chucked it up to the window. He started walking up the wall with the help of the rope.

"Don't worry buddy, I'm not making you go underground ever again." Aang said "You can stay out here with Toph."

"What about you Kaida, it's your choice." I said.

"I'll come in with you." She said. We walked up the rope, well, Kaida clawed her way up the wall. When we got inside the spire was gold and carvings lined the wall.

"Oh wow, it's breathtaking." Zei said "The spirits spent no expense in designing this place, look at those beautiful buttresses." Zei admired, Sokka, Aang and I giggled, butt-resses.

"What's funny?" Zei asked.

"Nothing, we just like architecture." Aang said.

"As do I." Zei grinned, he hopped off the rope, so did the rest of us. "My word, the exquisite mosaic handiwork or this tile-rendered avian symbol."

"Hotaru?" the others asked.

"Nice owl." I translated, I pointed up and the owl drawing on the wall. We heard a noise somewhere inside the library, Kaida went invisible and the rest of us hid behind some pillars.

"I know you're back there." I heard a male voice say, I bet it was Wan Shi Tong. Zei walked out into the open, I slapped my forehead.

"Hello, I'm Professor Zei, head of anthropology at Ba Sing Se university.

"You should leave the way you came, unless you want to become a stuffed head of anthropology." Wan Shi Tong, a giant owl, said. I looked at another pillar and saw stuffed heads of different species.

"Are you the spirit who bought this library to the physical world?" Sokka asked, the other three walked out so I followed them, Kaida stayed invisible.

"Indeed, I am Wan Shi Tong, he who knows ten thousand things and you are obviously humans which are by the way, no longer permitted in my studies." Wan Shi Tong said.

"What do you have against humans?" Aang asked.

"Humans only bother learning things to get the edge on other humans, like that fire bender who came to this place a few years ago looking to destroy his enemy." Wan Shi Tong said. I thought for a moment, fire bender? Zhao! It seems like the thing he would do.

"So, who are you trying to destroy?" Wan Shi Tong asked Sokka.

"What?! N-no, no destroying, we're not into that." Sokka said.

"Then why have you come here?" Wan Shi Tong asked.

"Um…knowledge for knowledge's sake." Sokka shrugged.

"If you're going to lie to an all knowing spirit, you should at least put some effort into it." Wan Shi Tong said.

"I'm not lying, I'm here with the avatar, and he's the bridge between our worlds, he'll vouch for me." Sokka said, he pushed Aang forward.

"Uh, yeah, I'll vouch; we will not abuse the knowledge in your library good spirit." Aang said "You have my word." We all bowed.

"Hmmmmm, very well, I'll let you use my vast collection, on one condition. You prove you're worthy scholars, you have to contribute some worthwhile knowledge." Wan Shi Tong said.

"Please accept this as a donation to your library." Zei said, he bowed and gave a book to Wan Shi Tong.

"First addition, very nice." Wan Shi Tong said, he took the book of Zei.

"I have an authentic water bending scroll." Katara said.

"Ooooh, these illustrations are quite nice." Wan Shi Tong said, he took the scroll off of Katara.

"Uhhhh, oh, I know!" Aang said, he took some paper out of his cloak; it was the wanted poster of him.

"I suppose that counts." Wan Shi Tong said. He took the paper off of Aang. Wan Shi Tong looked to me. There was _no way_ I was giving up my fire bending scrolls.

"I think I have something." I said, I dug through my pockets until I found them. I held the glimmering scales in my hands "Three scales from a white dragon." I said.

"Very rare, good." Wan Shi Tong said, he took the scales off of me.

"Oh great spirit, check this out." Sokka said, he had a small piece of rope; he knotted it in different places until it looked like a dragonfly. "TADAA! It's a special knot! That counts as knowledge."

"You're not very bright are you?" Wong Shi Tong said, he took the rope off of Sokka. "Enjoy the library." He said before flying off.

"Bright enough to fool you." Sokka said. I looked through the library until I found some books and scrolls that interested me. They were fire bending scrolls I realised. I took the box of my five scrolls out of my bag and put some of the easier ones in. Next I walked and found a book on dragons. I picked it out and sat on the floor.

"Kaida, apparently dragons were the first fire benders, that must be the secret, the secret is fire bending." I said.

"Correct." She nodded. I read through the book and read some to her, but when I got to the last page I shoved it back on the shelf and moved on. It said that Sozin had started the sport of hunting dragons and that there were none left! I walked around to see Katara and Aang looking through some books.

"Where's Sokka?" I asked.

"Dunno." Aang answered, we walked through the isle and saw Sokka with a piece of burnt paper. He started to run in another direction.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I wanna know what happened to the fire nation on their darkest day." Sokka said "This could be promising." He said, he ran off again but this time we followed him. "The information on the fire nation should be right up here." Sokka said, we came to a large door with a red banner over it, it said fire. When we walked in we saw that everything was burnt down.

"Fire benders." Aang said angrily.

"No, Zhao." I corrected.

"What do you mean?" Katara asked.

"How do you think he knew about the moon and ocean spirit?" I asked.

"He destroyed everything having to do with the fire nation." Katara said, I nodded in agreement.

"That's so unfair!" Sokka threw a tantrum "Just when I think I'm one step ahead of the fire nation it turns out they beat us here a long time ago! I need to know what happened on the darkest day."I heard a fox whining behind us, I looked around and saw one of the knowledge seekers.

"Hello, little weird fox guy." Sokka said. It pointed one way down the library.

"Seems it's trying to assist you." Zei said.

"Um, sure." Sokka said "I guess I'll follow you." We ran through the library following the fox. We came to a massive gold circular door on the wall. The fox crawled through a small hole in the wall by the side of the door. A few moments passed before the gold door was rolled away. The fox was just past the door. When we walked in I looked around, it was a massive room with a small table sort of thing in the middle of the room, the wall and roof were like a dome and had clouds, the sun and the moon, but the sun and the moon were on metal rods, like they could move. A fox pushed the lever forward, the dome moved so that stars appeared and they moved, so did the moon.

"This room is a true marvel, a mechanical wonder; it's a planetarium that shows the heavens moving." Zei said. Next the dome moved so that day came.

"Uh this is beautiful, but how is it helpful?" Sokka asked.

"Maybe these dials represent dates in time." Katara suggested.

"Sokka, try entering the date from the paper you took." I said.

"Shhhh, Hotaru, not in front of the fox with the owl." Sokka whispered. The fox's ears flattened and he whimpered. Sokka snuck out the paper in his bag and looked at the date; he entered it into the calendar and pulled the lever. The stars came back the moon moved.

"Wow, I gotta hand it to you Sokka; you picked the best mini vacation for sure." Aang said. The day rolled across the dome but it was dark.

"Hey wait, what happened to the sun?" Katara asked. I looked up.

"Great, you must have broken it." Aang accused Sokka.

"It's not broken; the sun is behind the moon! It's a solar eclipse! It's literally the darkest day in fire nation history! Now I get it, something awful happened on that day, I don't know what but I do know why, fire benders lose their bending on a solar eclipse!" Sokka said.

"My bending." I whispered, I lit a flame above my palm and looked into it.

"That makes sense, I mean think of what the lunar eclipse did to the water benders at the North Pole. This is huge." Katara said. The fox whined and begged.

"Fine, you've earned it." I smiled, I took some meat out of my bag and chucked it to the fox, it caught it and scampered off.

"We've got to get this information to the earth king at Ba Sing Se, we'll wait for the next eclipse, then we'll invade the fire nation when they're totally helpless, the fire lord is going down!" Sokka exclaimed. I gasped as I saw Wan Shi Tong.

"Mortals are so predictable and such terrible liars." Wan Shi Tong said. Sokka gulped. "You betrayed my trust, from the beginning you intended to misuse this knowledge for evil purposes."

"You don't understand, if anyone's evil it's the fire nation, you saw what they did to your library, they're destructive and dangerous, we need this information." Sokka said, I punched his shoulder "See!" he said, I narrowed my eyes at him.

"You think you're the first person to think their war is justified, countless others before you have come here seeking weapons or weaknesses or battle strategies." Wan Shi Tong said.

"We had no choice, please; we're just desperate to protect the people we love." Aang said.

"And now I'm going to protect the thing I love." He threatened; he started to flap his wings hard.

"What are you doing?!" Aang asked.

"I'm taking my knowledge back." Wan Shi Tong answered "No one will ever abuse it again."

"He's sinking the building, we have to go now!" I yelled "Kaida!" Kaida then became visible, I hopped on her back.

"I'm afraid I can't allow that, you already know too much." Wan Shi Tong said, his neck grew and he looked even more scary that normal. He jumped forward and tried to kill us, we all got out of the way. We ran away out of the door. Sand started falling from the ceiling as we ran.

"AH! Great knowledge spirit, I beg you, please do not destroy your vast collection of priceless books!" Zei begged. Aang used air bending to drag him back. Aang knocked the owl back as well.

"We've gotta get back to the surface!" Aang said. We started running, but Sokka didn't.

"Sokka, let's go!" Katara yelled.

"But we still don't know when the next eclipse is gonna happen!" Sokka said.

"Don't be stupid, we'll find out later!" Katara pleaded.

"No, we won't, if we leave this place we'll never get the information. Aang, come with me to the planetarium, I need cover, Katara, Hotaru, take Momo and get out of here." Sokka said.

"But-" Katara started, something went boom. It was Wan Shi Tong.

"GO!" Sokka barked.

"Just hurry Sokka!" I said, we ran away from Wan Shi Tong. Zei ran into an isle of the library. Katara ran as fast as she could while I rode Kaida. We ran behind the edge of an isle of books and hid. Katara hugged Momo close, I jumped off of Kaida while she went invisible. We heard Wan Shi Tong a few metres away, I held my breath.  
>"At least I'll have one specimen to add to my collection." Wan Shi Tong said, I looked down at Momo, his tail was poking out. We ran again. We managed to get to the end and found the rope. We got ready to fight. "Your bending won't do you much good here; I've studied northern styles, southern styles, even foggy swamp and royal styles." Wan Shi Tong said. Suddenly I heard something from above, I looked up and saw Aang flying on his glider, then Sokka with a book, he hit the owl on the head and knocked him out.<p>

"That's called Sokka style, learn it!" Sokka said. I laughed and high fived him. We started to climb the rope to get away. "Wait, professor, let's go!" Sokka said, I looked down and saw Zei reading a book.

"I'm not leaving, I can't, I've spent too long trying to find this place, there's not another collection of knowledge like this on earth. I could spend an eternity in here." Zei said. I smiled and nodded, he was happy.

"Just go!" Katara yelled. Suddenly the rope started shaking again, I looked down and saw Wan Shi Tong shaking the rope. The rope broke and we started to fall, Katara and Sokka were caught by Aang and I was caught by a beautiful white dragon, I hugged her neck and sighed in relief, we started to fly out. Wan Shi Tong started to fly after us, we only just made it out in time. I looked and saw Toph holding up the library with great difficulty, she let go and it shot down into the sand.

"We got it! There's a solar eclipse coming!" Sokka said happily. "The fire nation's in trouble now." I looked at Toph, she was hugging her knees to her chest sadly.

"Where's Oppa?" Aang asked. Toph put her hands on the sides of her head and shook her head sadly. Aang gasped and started crying. I put my hands over my mouth and shook my head in disbelief, Oppa...was gone?


	30. Chapter 30

I looked around and saw that a sand storm had kicked up, Toph told us what happened, while she was holding up the library sand benders had come and taken Oppa, she tried to stop them but the library would have fallen into the ground with us still in it, the sand benders left Sadie alone. "How could you let them take Oppa?!" Aang yelled "Why didn't you stop them?!"

"I couldn't, the library was sinking and you guys were still inside and-" Toph started.

"You could have come to get us, I could've saved him!" Aang yelled.

"I can hardly feel any vibrations out here, the sand benders snuck up on me and there wasn't enough time to-" she started.

"You just didn't care! You never liked Oppa! You wanted him gone!" Aang yelled.

"Aang, stop it." Katara said. She walked over and took Aang away from Toph. I went and hugged Toph reassuringly.

"You know Toph did all she could." I said "She saved our lives."

"Who's gonna save our lives now?" Sokka asked "We'll never make it outta here."

"What about Kaida?" Katara asked.

"Sorry but she can't hold us all and if we bought some of you away then we wouldn't remember the way back to the others." I said sadly.

"That's all any of you guys care about! Yourselves, you don't care whether Oppa is okay or not!" Aang yelled.

"If we die out here then who's gonna save Oppa huh?!" I yelled.

"Yeah, we're all concerned, but we can't afford to be fighting now." Katara said.

"I'm going after Oppa." Aang said firmly, he jumped away on his glider.

"Aang, wait!" Katara yelled. "We better start walking." She said.

"We're the only people who know about the solar eclipse, we have to get that information to Ba Sing Se." I said.

"Agreed." Katara said. We started walking.

"You think if we dig out the giant owl, he'll give us a ride?" Sokka asked. We walked for what seemed like forever in silence. Sokka put Momo on top of his head for shade. Toph walked into him, Sokka said "Can't you watch where you're-"  
>"No." Toph said.<p>

"Right, sorry." Sokka said.

"Come on guys, we've gotta stick together."Katara said. Sokka's sweat had literally stuck him to Toph.

"If I sweat any more I don't think sticking together will be a problem." Sokka said. Toph put her hand on Sokka's face and pushed him down to the floor.

"Katara, can I have some water?" Toph asked.

"Okay, but we've gotta try to conserve it." Katara said. She water bended some water into midair, she split it into equal pieces, Momo did get less though and water bended it into Sokka, Toph, Momo, Kaida, Sadie and my mouth.

"We're drinking your bending water? You used this on the swamp guy!" Sokka said.

"It does taste swampy." Toph said.

"I'm sorry, it's all we have." Katara said.

"Not anymore!" Sokka yelled, he pointed at a cactus. He chopped a bit of the cactus off with his sword and drank the water in it.

"Sokka, wait, you shouldn't be eating strange plants!" Katara said.

"Never drink cactus juice!" I said worriedly.

"Why not?" Katara asked.

"You'll see." I sighed. Sokka drunk loads and so did Momo.

"There's water trapped inside these." He said, he passed one to Katara.

"I don't know." Katara said.

"Suit yourself, it's very thirst quenching though." Sokka said, suddenly his eyes grew wide, he ran around saying "Drink cactus juice, it'll quench ya, nothing's quenchier, it's the quenchiest!"

"Okay, I've think you've had enough." Katara said, she spilt her cactus juice into the sand.

"Who lit Toph on fire?" Sokka asked. I slapped my forehead.

"That's why." I said. I looked up at Momo, he flew in circles and then flew into the ground.

"Can I get some of that cactus?" Toph asked.

"Looks fun." I nodded.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Katara said "Come on, we need to find Aang." I linked arms with Toph so she didn't walk into anything. Katara had to practically drag Sokka and carry Momo.

"How did we get out here into the middle of the ocean?" Sokka asked. Soon after we started walking again there was a giant sand mushroom explosion in the distance. The wind from the explosion hit us hard.

"What is that?" Katara asked.

"What? What is what?" Toph asked.

"A mushroom explosion." I said.

"It's a giant mushroom. Maybe it's friendly?!" Sokka yelled.

"Let's just keep moving." I said.

"I hope Aang's okay." Katara said.

"Friendly mushroom! Giant mushy friend!" Sokka yelled. Katara grabbed his shirt and dragged him.

We were still walking when the sun started to set, we saw Aang land behind us. "I'm sorry Aang, I know it's hard for you right now but we need to focus on getting out of here." Katara said.

"What's the difference, we won't survive without Oppa, we all know it." Aang said.

"Come on Aang, we can do this if we work together." Katara said "Right Toph?"

"As far as I can feel, we're trapped in a giant bowl of sand pudding. I got nothing." Toph said.

"Sokka?" Katara asked "Any idea how to find Ba Sing Se?"

"Why don't we ask the circle birds?" Sokka asked, he pointed into the air, I looked up and saw giant bugs circling us.

"We're getting out of this desert and we're going to do it together, Aang, get up, everybody, hold hands, we can do this." Katara said. I held Toph's hand and kept one hand on Sadie, she was almost falling over. "We have to." Katara said. We carried on walking until we got to a hill, where Katara said "I think we should stop for the night." We all sighed and fell to the floor. I heard Sadie whining in a peculiar way.

"What girl?" I asked.

"You know what." Kaida said. I nodded and started crying, Sadie was dying. I hugged her and cuddled into her neck; she nuzzled my hair and looked into my eyes. I smiled and stroked her head. I took off her saddle and her collar; I tied her collar around my wrist.

"Is there any water left?" Toph asked.

"This is the last of it." Katara said "Everyone can have a little drink." She water bended the last of the water out of her bottle, Momo jumped through it in midair.

"MOMO NO! YOU'VE KILLED US ALL!" Sokka yelled.

"No he hasn't." Katara said, she water bended the water out of the ground.

"Ohhh right, bending." Sokka said. Katara handed the bottle to Toph once she put the water back in.

"Sokka let me see the things you got from the library." Katara said to Sokka.

"WHAT?! I didn't steal anything, who told you that?!" Sokka exclaimed. "IT WAS YOU!" Sokka yelled, he pointed accusingly at Momo. "YOU RATTED ME OUT!" Momo started crying.

"Sokka, I was there." Katara said, she took the paper off of him.

"It doesn't matter; none of those will tell us where Oppa is." Aang said.

"Shut it about Oppa already, you think you have it hard, at least he's alive, Sadie is dyeing!" I yelled. The others looked at me sadly. Sadie whined again.

"At least we can find out where Ba Sing Se is." Katara said "We can use the stars to guide us." She pulled out a map of the stars. "That way we can travel at night when it's cool and rest during the day." Katara said. "Just try to get some sleep." She added "We'll start again in a few hours." I nodded and hugged Sadie, I felt her warm fuzzy fur against my skin until I fell asleep. I was awoken later on that night. When I got up I looked at Sadie, she wasn't breathing.

"Wake up girl." I said, I shook her. She wouldn't get up, please, please, please. I started crying again and hugged her neck "Please wake up." I said, my voice cracking. Kaida nuzzled me.

"Come on." Katara said "We need to go." I looked down at the lifeless pet that I loved and nodded. I hugged her; I took off the leather bracelet with all the nation symbols on it and put it by her. I cried and got onto Kaida.

"Yesterday my mouth tasted like mud, now it tastes like sand, I can't believe I'd miss the taste of mud." Toph said. I laughed and wiped away my tears. Katara went to go and wake up Aang.

"I'm awake." He said "I couldn't sleep."

"Well, we need to get moving if we want to get out of this sand pit." Katara said. Aang looked up into the sky and gasped, in front of the moon it looked like Oppa.

"OPPA!" he exclaimed.

"Oppa, why would princess Yue need him, she's the moon, she flies by herself!" Sokka said.

"It's just a cloud." Katara said. "Wait a cloud! Here, fly up and bend the water from that cloud into my pouch." Katara said, she handed her pouch to Aang. He snatched it angrily off of her and flew up. I saw the cloud disappear bit by bit as he bended it. He landed and handed the pouch to Katara. "Wow, there's hardly any in here." She said.

"I'm sorry okay! It's a desert cloud! I did all I could, what's anyone else doing?!" Aang yelled, he pointed to Katara "What are you doing?!"

"Trying to keep everyone together." Katara replied sadly. "Let's just get moving, we need to head in this direction." Katara said we followed her through the sand; I looked back at my dead best friend one more time before riding Kaida in her direction.

At one point Toph fell over "OW!" She yelled, she sat up and rubbed her foot. "CRUD! I am so sick of not feeling where I'm going!" she yelled angrily "And what idiot buried a boat in the middle of the desert?!"

"A boat?" Katara asked.

"Believe me; I kicked it hard enough to feel plenty of vibrations." Toph said. Aang walked over with his staff. He used wind to blow all the sand away from the boat that was buried.

"It's one of the gliders the sand benders used and look, it's got some kind of compass on it, I bet it can point us outta here!" Katara exclaimed.

"Aang, you can bend a breeze so we can use it." I said.

"We're gonna make it!" Katara said happily. We got on and started it up, so it could go faster I rode Kaida alongside the glider. "The needle on this compass doesn't seem to be pointing north according to my charts." Katara said.

"Take it easy little lady, I'm sure the sand folks who built this baby know how to get around here." Sokka said dreamily. I saw a very large rock in the distance.

"That's what the compass is pointing to, that giant rock, it must be the magnetic centre of the desert." Katara said.

"A rock?! Yes! Let's go!" Toph yelled excitedly.

"Maybe we can find some water there." Katara said.

"Maybe we can find some sand benders." Aang said darkly. When we got there the sun was rising, we climbed up to the top of the rock, Toph was happy.

"Ahhhhh, finally, solid ground." Toph said, she did a snow angel, but in solid rock. I looked around and saw that in the rock were small tunnels. I walked through, the others followed me, apart from Kaida, she stayed outside.

"I think my head is starting to clear out the cactus juice." Sokka said "And look!" he pointed to the walls, where something yellow and slimy oozed. He took some off and put it into his mouth. "UGH! Tastes like rotten penguin meat!" he said "Oh, I feel woozy."

"You've been hallucinating on cactus juice all day and then you lick something you find stuck to the wall of a cave?!" Katara yelled angrily.

"I have a natural curiosity." Sokka shrugged.

"I don't think this is a normal cave, this was carved by something." Toph said.

"Yeah, look at the shape." Aang said, I looked around, it was a perfectly circle cave.

"There's something buzzing in here, something that's coming for us!" Toph warned. We ran out onto the top of the rock. We screamed and yelled as bug birds buzzed out and started attacking. Aang blew them away, I shot fire, Sokka swung his club and Toph attacked them when they landed on the floor, she couldn't exactly see them in the air. She heard one buzzing and shot a boulder at it, it dodged and landed almost on Sokka.

"HEY! You almost hit me!" Sokka yelled.

"Sorry, I can't tell where they are in the air." Toph said.

"I got this one!" Sokka said, he ran after something. He started swinging his club in the air.

"Sokka…there's nothing there." I said.

"I guess my head isn't as clear as I thought." He said.

"We have to get outta here." Katara said "I'm completely out of water to bend." Suddenly a bug went and took Momo before flying away.

"MOMO! I'm not losing anyone else out here." Aang said. He flew on his glider.

"Come on, we're going down." Katara said. We started walking down the patch on the rock.

"Toph, shoot a rock right there." I said, I turned her to face a bug. She hit the bug bird square in the chest, I laughed as it went down.

"Yeah, you got it!" Sokka said "She got it right?" Sokka asked.

"Yes, now come on!" I said. We carried on walking down the path. Aang came back soon after we got to the sandy floor.

"Oh your left." Katara said, she was basically using Toph as her weapon. I was still using fire blasts. Soon I gave up on fire, it was too small, I used rocks like Toph. Suddenly pillars of sand shot up everywhere and got rid of them. I looked out and saw sand benders and their boats, before they could see her Kaida went invisible. Aang walked out in front of us.

"What are you doing on our land with a sand bender sailor?" A sand bender asked "From the looks of it, you stole it from the Hami tribe."

"Actually we found it abandoned in the desert." Katara said "We're travelling with the avatar. Our bison was stolen and we have to get to Ba Sing Se."

"You dare accuse our people of theft while you ride in on a stolen sand sailor?" another man asked, he was younger.

"Quiet Ghashiun, no one accused our people of anything." The man said "If what they say is true we must give them hospitality."

"Sorry father." Ghashiun said.

"I recognise the son's voice; he's the one that stole Oppa." Toph said.

"Are you sure?" Katara asked.

"I never forget a voice." Toph answered.

"You stole Oppa!" Aang yelled angrily, he walked forward and pointed his staff at Ghashiun. "Where is he?! What did you do to him?!" He demanded.

"They're lying, they're the thieves." Ghashiun said. Aang destroyed one of their sand sailors with air bending, I was getting angry now, if we had Oppa we could have gotten out of the desert and we could've kept Sadie alive. "Where's my bison?!" Aang growled.

"Tell us now!" I yelled. I kicked fire and blew up another sand sailor.

"What did you do?" The father asked the son.

"It wasn't me." Ghashiun lied.

"You said to put a muzzle on him." Toph said.

"YOU MUZZLED OPPA?!" Aang hissed. His tattoos and eyes started glowing.

"Well, now you've gone and done it." I said under my breath. Aang destroyed another sand sailor.

"I'm sorry; I didn't know it belonged to the avatar!" Ghashiun said.

"Tell me where Oppa is!" Aang snarled.

"I traded him to some merchants; he's probably in Ba Sing Se by now, they were gonna sell him there, please, we'll escort you out of the desert, we'll help however we can." Ghashiun begged.

"Let's get outta here." Sokka said, he grabbed Momo. I took Toph's arm and led her away.

"Run!" I warned. I saw a ball of defensive air appear around Aang. Sand was whipped around everywhere so I couldn't see anything. I did see Katara hugging Aang, they were both crying but Aang was still glowing. His expression softened and he stopped glowing. We all ran over and held him.

"It's okay." I said, I was lying.


	31. Chapter 31

We were in the middle of a canyon with a big lake, we were just playing around, Patch was lying out in the sun with Kaida. Toph was kicking her feet in the water while Aang was floating across the surface of the water, I was swimming under the water and Sokka was looking at maps. Aang went under water and put a block of ice around him before bobbing back up. "WATER BENDING BOMB!" Katara yelled. I gasped and came up; I raised myself out of the water and stayed in the air in some water. She landed in the water and made a big splash. Pretty much all of the water in the lake flew out and soaked Sokka, Toph, Patch, Kaida and Sokka's maps. We all laughed, I came back down and stood on the floor.

"Sure, 5000 year old maps from the spirit library, sure, just splash some water on em." Sokka said, he held up his soaking wet map.

"Sorry." Katara said, she water bended the water out of the paper.

"So did you figure out what root we're going to take?" Aang asked. We were trying to find a way to Ba Sing Se.

"Okay, we just got out of the desert so we must be around here." Sokka said, he pointed to a place on the map "We need to go to Ba Sing Se which is here, it looks like the only path connecting the south to the north is this sliver of land here called the serpent's pass." He said.

"You're sure that's the best way to go?" Toph asked.

"It's the only way." Sokka said "I mean it's not like we have Oppa to fly us there."

"Shush about Oppa, can't you at least try to be sensitive?" Katara asked.

"Katara, it's okay, I know I was upset about losing Oppa before but I just want to focus on getting to Ba Sing Se." Aang shrugged, his eyes held no feeling, which was not a good sign "We need to tell the earth king about the solar eclipse."

"Oh, well okay, I'm glad you're doing better." Katara said.

"Then to Ba Sing Se we go no more distractions." Sokka said.

"Hello there fellow refugees!" I saw someone yell, there was a man a woman and what looked like their daughter. Sokka frowned in an unimpressed manner.

"So are you guys heading to Ba Sing Se too?" I asked.

"Sure are, we're trying to get there before my wife Ying has her baby." The man said.

"Great, we can travel through the serpent's pass together." Katara said.

"The serpent's pass, only the truly desperate take that route." Ying said.

"Deadly route, real pick Sokka." Toph said, she punched Sokka's shoulder.

"Well we are desperate." Sokka said.

"You should come with us to full moon bay; ferries take refugees across the lake. It's the fastest way to Ba Sing Se." the husband said.

"And it's hidden, so the fire nation can't find it." Ying said.

"Hmmmmm, peaceful ferry ride or deadly pass?" Katara asked sarcastically.

"It's a toughie." I said.

We were let into full moon bay by earth benders. There were hundreds of people camping in tents with pots over fires. "I can't believe how many people's lives have been uprooted by the fire nation." Katara said.

"We're all looking for a better life, safe behind the walls of Ba Sing Se." The husband, named Tahn, said. We walked into the line to get tickets.

"I told you already! No vegetables on the ferry, one cabbage slug could destroy the entire eco-system of Ba Sing Se!" the lady at the counter yelled "Security!" I looked over and saw a big platypus bear destroying his cabbage cart.

"MY CABBAGES!" he yelled. He was carried away by some guards. We were next.

"Next!" the lady asked.

"Uh-4 tickets for the ferry to Ba Sing Se please." Aang said.

"Passports." She said.

"Uh, no one told us we had to have passports." Aang said.

"Don't you know who this is? He's the avatar!" Sokka said.

"Ugh, I see 50 avatars a day and by the way, not a very impressive costume." She said, she pointed to the side where there were about 20 kids dressed like Aang. Aang smiled and nodded. "Besides, no animals allowed." She said, she pointed at Momo and Patch. "Do I need to call security?" I looked at the platypus bear, he had a cabbage in his mouth, he bit down on it, the cabbage was shredded to pieces, I gulped.

"That won't be necessary." Aang said.

"NEXT!" she yelled. Toph walked over to desk.

"I'll take care of this." Toph said. She slid her passport onto the desk "My name is Toph Beifong and I'll need four tickets."

"Ahhhhh, wow, the golden seal of the flying boar, it is my pleasure to help anyone of the Beifong family." The lady said.

"It is your pleasure, as you can see, I am blind, and these four imbeciles are my valet." Toph said.

"But the two animals-"the lady stuttered.

"They are my seeing eye animals." Toph said.

"Well normally it's only one ticket per passport but this passport is so official, I guess it's worth five tickets." The lady said, she stamped four tickets.

"Thank you very much." Toph said, she grabbed the tickets and walked away.

"Alright, we scammed that lady good." Sokka said.

"Tickets and passports please." Someone said, the lady grabbed Sokka's shirt and pulled him around.

"Is there a problem?" Sokka asked.

"Yeah, I got a problem with you, I've seen your type before, probably sarcastic, think you're hilarious and let me guess, you're travelling with the avatar?" she asked, I finally recognised her, but now it was Sokka who needed to.

"Do I know you?" Sokka asked.

"You mean you don't remember? Maybe you'll remember this." The lady threatened, she kissed Sokka's cheek.

"SUKI!" Sokka said happily. It was Suki, the leader of the Kyoshi warriors. They hugged each other.

"Sokka, it's good to see you." Suki said. We were led onto a tower on the wall around the bay.

"You look so different without your make up and the new outfit." Katara said.

"That crabby lady made all the security guards wear them and look at you sleeveless guy, been working out?" Suki asked Sokka.

"Ah I grab a tree branch and do a few chin touches every now and then." Sokka gloated "Nothing major."

"Are the other Kyoshi warriors around?" Aang asked.

"Yeah, after you left Kyoshi we wanted to find a way to help people, we ended up escorting some refugees and we've been here ever since." Suki said. Momo jumped up onto the wall "Hi Momo, good to see you too." I saw Patch stick his head out of my pocket "Oh, and who's this?"

"This is Patch, he was in a fire temple, he fell on me so I kept him." I said.

"Oh, okay, hi Patch, I'm Suki." Suki said. She stroked his ears; he ran up her arm and sat on her shoulder. "So why are you guys getting tickets for the ferry? Wouldn't you just fly across on Oppa?" Suki asked. We all looked down at the floor sadly.

"Oppa is missing; we hope to find him in Ba Sing Se." I said.

"I'm so sorry to hear that, are you doing okay?" Suki asked Aang, we all looked at him.

"I'm doing fine, would everybody stop worrying about me?!" Aang asked.

"Avatar Aang," I heard Ying say, I looked down and saw her on the floor with her husband "You have to help us, someone took all of our belongings, our passports, our tickets, everything's gone." She said, she started crying.

"I'll talk to the lady for you." Aang said.

"No passports, no tickets!" the lady yelled, she stamped Aang's forehead.

"But she's pregnant and all their stuff was taken." Aang said.

"Please, you have to make an acceptation." I said.

"NO ACCEPTATIONS!" the lady yelled "If I just gave away tickets willy nilly to anyone there would be no more order! And you know what that means, no more civilisation!"

"What if we give them our tickets?" Aang asked.

"NO!"

"But-"

"NEXT!" the lady spat.

"Don't worry, you'll get to the city safely, I'll lead you through the serpent's pass." Aang said to Ying and her family.

"I can't believe we gave away our tickets and now we're going through the serpent's pass." Sokka said.

"I can't believe you're still complaining about it." Toph said.

"I'm coming too!" I heard Suki yelled, when I looked around I saw that she had her make up on and her usual outfit.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sokka asked.

"Sokka I thought you'd want me to come." Suki said.

"I do, its just-"  
>"Just what?" Suki asked.<p>

"Nothing, I'm glad you're coming." Sokka said.

As we were walking to the serpent's pass Suki asked "Where's Sadie?" Tears dotted my eyes.

"Sadie died in the desert." I choked.

"I am so sorry, I didn't know." Suki said

"It's okay." I smiled.

"Is there anything else I should know about?" Suki asked. I nodded. "What?" she asked.

"Kaida." I said.

"Who's Kaida?" Suki asked. Kaida came out of hiding and looked at Suki. "Wow, a-uh-dragon, nice." Suki stuttered. I hugged Kaida.

"I found her in a swamp." I said.

"Right, makes perfect sense." Suki nodded. I laughed.

"This is the serpent's pass?" Sokka asked "I thought it would be windier, you know, like a serpent." I looked ahead, there was a path going between two bodies of water, a gate was arched over the start of the path. "Oh well, I guess they misnamed it." Sokka said.

"Look at this writing." Ying said "How awful." She was looking at the gate, writing was etched into the wood.

"What does it say?" Toph asked.

"It says abandon hope." I said.

"How can we abandon hope?" Ying asked "With all we have?"

"I don't know, the monks used to say that hope was just a distraction so maybe we do need to abandon it." Aang said.

"What are you talking about?" Katara asked.

"Hope isn't going to get us into Ba Sing Se." Aang said "And it's not going to find Oppa, we need to focus on what we're doing right now and that's getting across this pass." He said.

"Okay, if you say so." Katara said. We followed him up the path. We were talking to Suki on the way.

"The fire nation controls the western lake, rumour has it they're working on something bug on the other side and they don't what anyone to find out what it is." Suki said. I looked at the fire nation ship in the water cautiously. Suddenly the path gave way and Tahn fell down, Toph earth bended a panel under him so he didn't fall down, she flicked him back up.

"I'm okay." Tahn said. Some rock fell into the water.

"They spotted us!" Sokka yelled, the fire nation ship fired a rock that was on fire at us. "Let's go, let's go!" he yelled. Aang jumped up and hit the ball with his staff; it bounced off in the opposite direction and hit the fire nation ship. They fired another one, it the wall above us, rocks tumbled down and were about to hit Suki, Sokka pushed her out of the way and was now in the way himself. Toph earth bended a slope above Sokka so that the rocks went into the ocean rather than on Sokka.

"Suki are you okay?!" Sokka asked Suki "You have to be more careful! Come on!" he said, him and Suki ran forward.

"Thanks for saving my life Toph. Hey no problem Sokka." Toph said to herself. I grabbed her arm and we started running. That night we set up camp on a small ledge. Kaida was now visible to everyone else. Suki put her blanket down.

"Suki, you shouldn't sleep there, who knows how stable this ledge is, it could give way at any moment." Sokka said. He picked up her blanket and put it closer to us.

"Sokka I'm fine, stop worrying." Suki said.

"You're right, you're right, you're perfectly capable of taking care of yourself." Sokka said. Suki was about to sit down "WAIT! Oh, never mind, I thought I saw a spider, but you're fine." Sokka said. I grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around myself before lying against Kaida and falling asleep. The next morning I got up and packed my stuff. I woke up the others and we carried on walking. We soon stopped. We all looked sadly, part of the patch was broken, it was covered in water.

"Everyone single file!" Katara said, she brought some water over us and started walking through. "Aang, Hotaru, I need some help." She said. I nodded and stayed at the back of the queue, Kaida was flying above us. Aang gave his staff to Toph and he helped out from the middle. We were walking underwater in a large bubble of air. Momo jumped out of the bubble and swum, he caught a fish and came back in. Suddenly Momo jumped back in, he was shaking in fear. Something _HUGE _swam past the bubble.

"What is that thing?" Suki asked. Suddenly it swam through the bubble and made the bubble leak. Toph stamped her foot on the floor and bought up the circle of path we were on. She handed Aang's staff back to him. The monster circled the circle we were standing on. Suddenly it burst out of the water, it was bigger and green and resembled the Unagi.

"I think I just figured out why they call it the serpent's pass." Sokka said. The monster roared. "Suki, you know about giant sea monsters, make it go away!" Sokka said.

"Just because I live near the Unagi doesn't mean I'm an expert." Suki said angrily. Sokka grabbed Momo and held him up.

"O great and powerful sea serpent, please accept this humble and tasty offering, thank you." Sokka said.

"Sokka!" Katara scolded. The monster came forward to bite us. Aang slapped it with some air.

"I'll distract it, Katara, Hotaru, get everyone across." Aang said, he opened his glider and flew around the monster. Katara and I made some ice in front of the circle of land and let people walk across it. We helped the people across. Katara jumped into the water on an ice board and helped Aang. When we were across I saw everyone but Toph.

"Toph come on, it's just ice!" Sokka said. Toph stepped down and put her foot on the ice, she took it back up.

"Actually, I'm gonna stay on my little island where I can see." Toph said. The monster slammed onto the island behind her, she fell onto the path. "Okay I'm coming." She said. She shuffled forward carefully.

"You're doing great!" I yelled.

"Follow the sound of my voice!" Sokka yelled.

"It's hard to ignore!" Toph yelled back.

"You're almost there." Sokka said loudly. Suddenly the monster cracked the path in front of her; she screamed and fell into the water.

"HELP! I CAN'T SWIM!" she yelled.

"I'm coming Toph!" Sokka yelled. He started to take his shoes off. Suki dived right in and swam to Toph; she dived down and brought Toph out of the water.

"Oh Sokka, you saved me." Toph said, she kissed Suki's cheek.

"Actually, it's me." Suki said.

"Oh, well, hehe, you can go ahead and let me drown now." Toph said. I used water bending to give Suki a boost towards us. When they got back I saw that Aang and Katara had beaten the monster. We all cheered for them. We finally got to the end of the pass.

"There's the wall!" Sokka said happily "Now it's nothing but smooth sailing from here."

"Oh no." Ying exclaimed.

"What's wrong?" Sokka asked.

"The baby's coming." Ying said.

"What?! Now?! Can't you, hold it in or something?!" Sokka yelled.

"Sokka, calm down, I helped Grangran deliver lots of babies back home." Katara said.

"This isn't the same as delivering an arctic seal!" he yelled. I punched his shoulder "What was that for?" he groaned.

"Man up you little girl." I said.

"But this is a real human thing!" he yelled.

"It's called a baby, and I helped her deliver plenty of those too." Katara said "Aang, get some rags, Sokka water, Toph, I need you to make an earth tent, a big one." She said. Toph walked in front of the family and brought a very big earth tent around them. "Hotaru, set up a fire for some warmth, Suki, you come with me." Katara said. I nodded and walked to my bag; I brought out some spare paper and crumpled it up.

"Kaida, go and get some wood." I said, Kaida nodded and left. I put the paper in a pile and lit it on fire with fire bending. Soon after Kaida came back a few minutes late with twigs and logs in her mouth, she laid them down on the floor. First I lit the twigs on fire and then the logs. Sokka came back with the water and walked into the tent. He put it down on the floor. He fainted from seeing Ying giving birth. I walked in and dragged him out. When the baby was clean they called us in.

"It's a girl!" I heard Katara say.

"So, you wanna go see the baby or are you gonna faint like an old lady again?" Toph asked Sokka.

"No no, I'm good this time." Sokka reassured. We walking and saw the cutest little face. Aang came in after us.

"She sounds healthy." Toph said.

"She's beautiful." Katara said.

"It's so…squishy looking." Sokka said.

"It's amazing." I sighed. I saw Aang smiled.

"What should we call her?" Tahn asked.

"I want our daughter's name to be unique; I want it to mean something." Ying said. I saw Aang's eyes water; I put my arm around his shoulder.

"I've been going through a really hard time lately but you've made me hopeful again." Aang said.

"I know what I want to name our baby now." Ying said "Hope."

"That's a perfect name, Hope." Tahn said. We walked outside and made sure the baby was warm by the fire. Aang was talking to Katara, we walked over and smiled at him.

"I promise, I'll find Oppa as fast as I can, I just really need to do this." Aang said.

"See you in the big city." Sokka said.

"Say hi to that big fuzz ball for me." Toph said.

"You'll find him Aang." Katara said.

"I know, thank you Katara." Aang said, he opened his glider and Momo spread his wings, they flew away.

"Sokka it's been great to see you again." Suki said.

"Whoa, hold on, why does it sound like you're saying goodbye?" Sokka asked.

"I came along because I wanted to make sure you got through the serpent's pass safely but now I need to get back to the Kyoshi warriors." Suki explained.

"So you came along to protect me?" Sokka asked.

"Listen, I'm really sorry about last night, we were talking and saying things, I just got carried away and before I knew it I-" Suki said, Sokka kissed her before she could go any further.

"You talk too much." Sokka said. He kissed her again.

"Ugh." I scoffed.

"You said it." Toph agreed, we both laughed.


	32. Chapter 32

We were almost at the wall when we saw Aang fly down to us. "Aang, what're doing here?" I asked.

"Yeah, I thought you were looking for Oppa." Katara said.

"I was, but something stopped me, something big." Aang said. We walked over to the wall, Toph, Aang and I used earth bending to slide up the wall on a rock ledge.

"Now what's so big that Oppa has to wait?" Sokka asked.

"That." Aang answered. I looked and saw a massive drill, when I say massive I mean _MASSIVE! _It was heading straight for the wall of Ba Sing Se. We stood on the top of the wall and got a good view of it. The drill was accompanied by tanks.

"We made it to Ba Sing Se and we're still not safe, no one is." Ying said.

"What are you people doing here?" someone said, I turned around and saw a guard "Civilians aren't allowed on the wall."

"I'm the avatar, take me to whoever's in charge." Aang said. We were taken to the person in charge.

"It is an honour to welcome you to the outside wall young avatar, but your help is not needed." General Sung said to us.

"Not needed?" Aang asked.

"Not needed." Sung repeated "I have the situation under control; I assure you that the fire nation cannot penetrate this wall." Sung said. We were led outside on top of the wall. "Many have tried to break through it but none have succeeded." Sung said.

"What about the dragon of the west?" Toph asked "He got in."

"W-well, uh, technically yes but he was quickly expunged." Sung said "Hehe, never the less, which is why the city is named Ba Sing Se, it's the impenetrable city. They don't call it Na Sing Se, Hahaha. That means penetrable city."

"Yeah, thanks for the tour but we still got the drill problem." I said.

"Not for long, to stop it I've sent an elite platoon of earth benders called the terror team." Sung said.

"That's a cool group name. Very catchy." Sokka said. I watched as the earth benders attacked the drill and tanks, it didn't work. Soon I saw two familiar figures, Ty Lee and Mai. Ty Lee took out almost all of them with chi blocking.

"We're doomed!" Sung yelled. Sokka slapped him, Awwww, I was gonna do that.

"Get a hold of yourself man!"Sokka yelled.

"You're right, I'm sorry." Sung said.

"Maybe you'd like the avatar's help now?" Toph asked.

"Yes please." Sung squeaked.

"So the question is how are we gonna stop that thing?" Aang asked. We all looked at Sokka.

"Why are you all looking at me?" Sokka asked.

"You're the idea guy." I said.

"So I'm the only one who can ever come up with a plan?" Sokka asked "That's a lot of pressure."

"And also the complaining guy." Katara added.

"That part I don't mind." Sokka shrugged. We walked down to the infirmary where we saw some people that Ty Lee and chi blocked. Katara started healing one man with her water bending.

"What's wrong with him?" Sung asked "He doesn't look injured."

"His chi is blocked, who did this to you?" Katara asked.

"Two girls ambushed us, one of them hit me with a bunch of quick jabs and suddenly I couldn't earth bend and I could barely move and then she cart wheeled away." The man answered.

"Ty Lee." I said "She doesn't look dangerous but she knows the human body and it's weak points." I said. I walked over to the earth bender and said "Don't move, I can help but this may hurt." I moved out his arm and held it out, I jabbed at places right next to where Ty lee had, the earth bender winced but then moved his arm.

"How did you do that?" he asked.

"Ty Lee's my best friend, we trained together." I said.

"It's like she takes you down from the inside." Katara said.

"OH OH OH OH OH OH!" Sokka yelled.

"Yes?" Katara asked while I got the chi flowing through the rest of the man's body.

"What you just said, that's how we're going to take down the drill, the same way Ty Lee took down all these big earth benders." Sokka explained.

"By hitting it's pressure points." Toph said. We walked to the window and looked at the drill.

"Right, we'll take it down from the inside." Aang said. We got down into a small ditch in front of the drill.

"Once I whip up some cover you're not going to be able to see so stay close to me." Toph said. She jumped up out of the ditch and kicked all of the dirt and dust off of the floor. "RUN!" she said, I nodded and jumped up, Kaida was on top of the wall and Patch was in my jacket pocket. We ran through the dust and followed Toph. When we got near the drill Toph opened up a sink hole in the ground. "Everyone into the hole." Toph said. We all jumped down, she came down last and closed the top of the hole.

"It's so dark down here, I can't see a thing." Sokka said.

"Oh no, what a nightmare." Toph said sarcastically.

"Sorry." Sokka said quickly. We came up underneath the drill "There." Sokka said. I looked and saw an entrance into the drill. Aang jumped up to a bar and hung upside down on it, we grabbed his hand and he helped us up. Toph stayed still.

"Toph come on." I said.

"No way am I going in that metal monster, I can't bend in there, I'll try to slow it down out here." Toph said.

"Okay, good luck." I said. Aang jumped up into the drill. When we went in we walked through the corridor and through a door.

"I need a blue print of this machine, some schematics to show what the inside looks like, then we can find it's weak points." Sokka said.

"Where are we gonna find something like that?" Aang asked. Sokka pulled out his knife and cut something off of a pipe, smoke started pouring out. "What are you doing?!" Aang asked "Someone's gonna hear us!"  
>"That's the point, I figured a machine this big needs engineers to run it and when something breaks-" Sokka started.<p>

"Someone comes to fix it!" Katara finished happily. We hid behind a wall and waited for an engineer. Katara jumped out and froze the steam so that the engineer was frozen in place. "Hi." She chirped.

"This'll work." Sokka said, he grabbed a blue print off of the guy "Thanks!" he ran away with. We followed Sokka up some stairs. He laid the map down on a pipe; he studied it and rubbed his chin. "It looks like the drill is made of two main structures. There's the inner mechanism, where we are now, and the outer shell, the inner part and the outer part are held up with these braces, if we cut through them the entire thing will collapse." Sokka explained. We nodded and ran to where all the braces were. "Wow, it looks a lot bigger in person that it does in the plan." Sokka said "We're going to have to work pretty hard to cut through that."

"What's this we stuff?" Katara asked "Aang, Hotaru and I are going to have to do all the work."

"Look, I'm the plan guy, you three are the cut stuff up with water bending guys, and together we're team avatar!" Sokka said. We cut through the metal by passing the water back and forth; it was really hard though and took a lot of time. When we finally cut through it we looked in anticipation, but it only slid forward a little.

"Ugh, at this rate we won't do enough damage before the drill reaches the wall." Katara said, I bent over and put my hands on my knees, I was panting like a dog.

"I don't know how many more of those I have in me." Aang panted. I nodded and agreed. The ground started rumbling.

"Do you hear that? We took it down; we better get out of here fast." Sokka said. We ran after Sokka.

"Congratulations crew, the drill has made contact with the wall of Ba Sing Se, start the countdown to victory." I heard a voice say through some speakers.

"Ugh, come on brace, budge!" Sokka said, he was trying to push over the brace we had cut through.

"This is bad, really bad." Katara said.

"We're putting everything we've got into busting these braces but it's taking too long!" Sokka said.

"Maybe we don't need to cut all the way through. Toph has been teaching us that you shouldn't give 100% of your energy into any one strike. Sokka, take a fighting stance." Aang said. "You've gotta be quick and accurate, hit a series of points and break your opponents stance." Aang said, he poked at Sokka in different places along his arms and legs, Sokka wobbled but didn't go down "And when he's reeling back, you deliver the final blow." Aang said, he tapped Sokka's head and Sokka went down "And then his own weight becomes his downfall, literally."

"So we just need to weaken the braces, instead of cutting all the way through." Katara said.

"Then I'll go to the top of this thing and deliver the final blow." Aang said.

"AND BOOM! It all comes crashing down." Sokka said.

"Everyone inside that wall, the whole world is counting on us." Aang said.

"The whole world minus the fire nation that is." Sokka said. I face palmed.

"I can help even more." I said.

"How?" Katara asked.

"I've been practicing my fire bending right? I've just learnt a move where I can control the temperature of the fire I make." I said.

"So?" Aang asked.

"Maybe I can heat up the water so it cuts through quicker?" I asked.

"It may not do much but we should try it." Aang said. I nodded, we jumped up to another brace, Aang and Katara passed the water back and forth between each other and through the pillar, every time it came to Katara's side I blasted a very small ball of fire at it, keeping it at a hot temperature but not so much that it evaporates. We managed to get through many pillars.

"Come on team avatar, now Aang just needs to AAHHHHH!" Sokka yelled when we were cutting through a pillar. Azula was here, she had shot some fire at Sokka. Aang and Sokka dodged, Katara and I blocked.

"Wow Azula, you were right, it is the avatar!" Ty Lee sung. She looked at Sokka and grinned "And friends." Sokka waved lamely.

"Hey." He said. Katara grabbed his hand and we ran through some tunnels.

"Guys get outta here; I know what I need to do!" Aang said, he ran in the opposite direction from us.

"Wait, you need this water more than I do." Katara said. She chucked her pouch to Aang. We carried on running, we soon got to a dead end, and there was a large pipe with a hatch in the top. "Slurry pipeline." Katara read the sign next to the pipe.

"What does that mean?" I asked. Sokka was trying to open the hatch. He finally got the hatch open.

"It's rock and water mixed together, it means our way out." Sokka said. Katara went down first, then Sokka and then I was last, I saw Ty Lee and Mai. I looked at them sadly before taking some of the rocks out of the water and bending them at Ty Lee and Mai, they looked surprised that I could bend more than fire.

"Not only the avatar can bend more than one element." I smirked. I dived down the hole and into the water. I swam to Sokka and Katara; we were carried down the water. We came out the back of the drill and fell onto the floor.

"UGH UGH GAH GHA BLEH BLAH UGH!" Sokka whined, he was trying to get the sludge off of him. I soon saw Ty Lee coming down the water as well.

"KATARA!" I yelled, we stood up and bended the water back into the drill so it was clogged. Ty Lee was stuck in that water.

"Why don't you try blocking my chi now circus freak!" Katara said.

"Keep that up guys, the pressure will build up in the drill, then when Aang delivers the final blow it'll be ready to pop." Sokka said. While I was bending the water Patch crawled out of my pocket and up my body until he got to my shoulder. He sat down and started licking the sludge off of it. "Good technique guys, keep it up, don't forget to breath." Sokka encouraged.

"You know what, I am just about sick and tired of you telling me what to do all day, you're like a chattering hog monkey." Katara said.

"Just bend the sludge woman!" Sokka yelled. Katara took one hand away from the bending and covered him in more sludge.

"You guys need some help?" I saw Toph asked.

"Toph, help us plug up this drain." I said. She planted her feet firmly on her ground and bent the rocks in the drain, the sludge went back even further. After a few minutes of our non-stop bending the sludge erupted out of the drill in many places.  
>"WOOHOO!" Sokka yelled.<p>

"Here is comes." Toph said. Toph and I lifted ourselves up on a pillar and out of the way of the sludge that poured out of the back of the drill. Ty Lee was slammed into the pillar. Toph and I high fived each other.

"Okay, that was frickin awesome!" I exclaimed. The drill rumbled and fell apart and smoked. We then went to the wall and met the others there.

"I just wanna say good effort out there today team avatar." Sokka said.

"Enough with the team avatar stuff." Katara said with her arms folded "No matter how many times you say it, it's not gonna catch on." She said.

"How about…the boomerang squad!" Sokka yelled, he pulled out his boomerang "See it's good cuz it's got Aang in it, Boomer-aang." Sokka said smugly.

"I kind of like that one." Aang said.

"Let's talk about this on our way into the city." Katara said, we started to walk away.

"The Aang gang?" Sokka suggested.

"Sokka." I sighed.

"The fearsome fivesome?" he said.

"You're crazy." Toph said.

"Why? We're fearsome?" Sokka said. He ran off after us.


	33. Chapter 33

We were taking the tram into Ba Sing Se. "Look, the inner wall!" Katara said. I looked through the window and saw the inner wall, it was big. "I can't believe we finally made it to Ba Sing Se." Katara said.

"And in one piece." I added.

"Hey don't jinx it, we could still be attacked by some giant exploding fire nation spoon or find out the city's been submerged in an ocean full of killer shrimp." Sokka said.

"Have you been hitting the cactus juice again?" Toph asked, we both laughed.

"I'm just saying, weird stuff happens to us." Sokka shrugged. Suddenly a fat guy walked past with a stick of corn in his mouth, he sat between Toph and Sokka and started sucking the corn. Aang looked kind of depressed.

"Don't worry Aang, we'll find Oppa." Katara said.

"It's such a big city." Aang said sadly.

"He's a giant bison, where could someone possibly hide him?" Sokka asked. We went through a tunnel and into Ba Sing Se. I gasped as I saw the city, it was _COLOSSAL_. "Oh." Sokka stuttered. There were rows upon rows of houses on hills and down my streams. We pulled into the station, the door whooshed open and we walked out.

"Ugh, back in the city." Toph said.

"Tell me about it." I moaned.

"Great." Toph groaned.

"What's the problem? It's amazing." Sokka said in awe.

"Just a bunch of walls and rules, you wait, you'll get sick of it in a couple of days." Toph said. Oppa looked at his bison whistle and blew it.

"I'm coming for you buddy." Aang said. Katara and I walked over and put our hands on his shoulder "He's here, I can feel it." Aang said. I turned around and looked across the train track, I almost screamed, there was a lady, she was smiling and blinked like a robot, once every three seconds. She walked over to us.

"Hello, my name is Joo Dee. I have been given the great honour of showing the avatar around Ba Sing Se." Joo Dee said "And you must be Sokka, Katara, Hotaru and Toph. Welcome to our wonderful city, shall we get started?"

"Yes, we have information about the fire nation that we need to deliver to the earth king immediately." Sokka said.

"Great, let's begin our tour and then I'll show you to your new home here, I think you'll like it." Joo Dee said before walking away.

"UGH!" Sokka exclaimed. We followed Joo Dee. "Maybe you missed what I said, we need to talk to the king about the war, it's important." Sokka said.

"You're in Ba Sing Se now, everyone is safe here." Joo Dee said, still with that infuriating smile plastered across her face. We were taken into a carriage and given a tour. "This is the lower ring." Joo Dee explained.

"What's that wall for?" Katara asked.

"Oh Ba Sing Se has many walls, there are the ones outside, protecting us and the ones inside that help maintain order. This is where our newest arrivals live as well as our craftsmen and artisans, people that work with their hands, it's so quaint and lively." Joo Dee explained. I looked out and saw many poor people in tatty clothes working behind stalls and someone in an alley with a sword. "You do want to watch your step though." Joo Dee added.

"Why do they have all poor people blocked off in one part of the city?" I asked.

"This is why I never came here before; I always heard it was so different from the way the monks taught us to live." Aang said sadly. We were next taken through a tunnel in another wall.

"This is the middle ring of Ba Sing Se, home to the financial district, shops and restaurants and the university." Joo Dee said.

"Yeah, we met a professor from Ba Sing Se University; he took us to an ancient underground library where we discovered information about the war that is absolutely crucial for the king to hear!" Sokka said quickly.

"Isn't history fascinating?" Joo Dee smiled "Look, here's one of the oldest buildings in the middle ring, town hall." She said.

"Is that woman def?" Sokka asked "She only seems to hear every other word I say."

"It's called being handled." Toph said.

"Get used to it." I scoffed. We were taken through the wall to the next ring.

"The upper ring is home to our most important citizens; your house is not too far from here." Joo Dee said. We were taken past a massive building with an earth kingdom banner over the top.

"What's behind that wall?" Katara asked. I looked past her and saw some men wearing the same uniform, they all turned around and glared at us.

"And who are the mean looking guys in robes?" Sokka asked.

"Inside is the royal palace, those men are agents of the Dai Li, the cultural authority of Ba Sing Se, they are the guardians of all our traditions." Joo Dee said.

"Can we see the king now?" Aang asked.

"Oh no, one doesn't just pop in on the earth king." Joo Dee laughed. None of us laughed. We were taken to a large house.

"Here we are your new home." Joo Dee said. Someone ran in and gave her a message. "More good news, your request for an audience with the earth king is being processed and should be put through in about a month." Joo Dee smiled "Much more quickly than usual."  
>"A month?!" Sokka exclaimed glumly.<p>

"Six to eight weeks actually." Joo Dee grinned. I just wanted to punch her head off right then and there. We all walked inside the house. "Isn't it nice, I think you'll really enjoy it here." Joo Dee stated.

"I think we'll enjoy more if we weren't staying so long, can't we see the king any sooner?" Sokka asked.

"The earth king is very busy running the finest city in the world but he will see you as soon as time permits." Joo Dee said.

"If we're gonna be here for a month we should spend our time looking for Oppa." Aang said. Momo's ears perked up at the sound of Oppa's name.

"I'll be happy to escort you anywhere you'd like to go." Joo Dee said.

"We don't need a baby sitter." Toph said.

"Oh I won't get in the way and to leave you alone would make me a bad host." Joo Dee said "Where shall we start?" We were escorted to the pet shop where Momo was aggravating a cat owl.

"Sorry but I haven't heard anything about a flying bison. I didn't even know there were any." The shop owner said.

"If someone wanted to sell a stolen animal without anyone knowing, where would they go?" Aang asked.

"Where's the black market?! Who runs it?!" Sokka asked.

"Come on you know." I said.

"Uh-uh-that would be illegal." The shop keeper said "You'll have to leave now, your lemur is harassing my sparrowkeets." He said. I looked around and saw Momo by the sparrowkeet's food, three were attacking him. We went to the university next.

"Hmmmmm, I've never see any sand benders or nomads around here, you should ask professor Zei, he teaches the class on desert cultures."A student said.

"Right, and which of your teachers can we ask about the war with the fire nation?" Sokka asked.

"Uhhhh- I dunno-I'm not a political science student, I have to get to class." He said. He ran away with his scrolls. We were dropped off back at home by Joo Dee.

"Well, I'm sorry no one has seen your bison, why don't you go get some rest, someone will be over with dinner later." Joo Dee said. She then left in her carriage, still wearing the fake smile. We saw a house over the road with someone peaking through the window of the door.

"Hey, come with me." Sokka said, we followed him across the road. He knocked on the door, a few moments later an old man slid it open and smiled.

"You're the avatar." He said to Aang "I heard you were in town, I'm Pang."

"Nice to meet you Pang." Aang said.

"So Pang, what's going on with this city, why is everyone here so scared to talk about the war?" Sokka asked.

"War?" Pang asked, his eyes were shifting from side to side "Scared? What do you mean?"

"I can feel you shaking." Toph said.

"Even I can." I said.

"Look, I'm just a minor government official, I've waited three years to get this house, I don't want to get into trouble." Pang said.

"Get into trouble with who?" Katara asked.

"Shhhh, listen, you can't mention the war here and whatever you do, stay away from the Dai Li." Pang said, he closed the door quietly. That night we just went to sleep and got settled in, Sokka and Aang shared a room, Toph and I shared a room and Katara had one to herself. Katara was up first in the morning and woke up the rest of us, she went outside to go and get any mail.

"I've got it!" She exclaimed when she came back in, she was holding up some paper "I know how we're gonna see the earth king."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Toph asked.

"Yeah, one doesn't just pop in on the earth king!" I mimicked Joo Dee.

"The king is having a party at the palace tonight for his pet bear." Katara said.

"You mean platypus bear?" Aang asked.

"No, it just says bear." Katara answered.

"Certainly you mean his pet skunk bear." Sokka said.

"Or his armadillo bear." Toph said.

"Gofer bear?" I asked.

"Just bear." Katara shrugged.

"This place…is weird." Toph said.

"The palace will be packed; we can sneak in with the crowed." Katara suggested.

"Won't work." I said.

"Why not?" Katara asked.

"Well no offence to you simple country folk but a real society crowed would spot you a mile away, you've got no manners." Toph said.

"Right." I nodded.

"Excuse me?! I've got no manners?! You're not exactly lady fancy fingers." Katara said, both Toph and I were leaning against the wall and eating some food. Toph burped.

"We learned proper society behaviour but chose to leave it, you never learned anything." I said.

"And frankly, it's a little too late." Toph said.

"AHA! But you guys learned it, you could teach us." Sokka suggested.

"Yeah, I'm mastering every element, how hard can manners be?" Aang asked. Aang wrapped a curtain around his shoulders. "Good evening Mr. Sokka water tribe, Miss Katara water tribe, Lord Momo of the Momo dynasty, your Momoness." Aang bowed.

"Avatar Aang, oh how do you do, go on." Sokka said. Aang bowed, Sokka bowed, Aang bowed, Sokka bowed, the both bowed at the same time and head butted.

"Katara might be able to pull it off, but you two would be lucky to pass as bus boys." Toph said.

"But I feel so fancy." Sokka said. We went into a room and got ready, Katara and Toph wore dresses and make up, I only let them put make up on me, there was no way on earth I was wearing a dress. Instead of a dress I wore some clean trousers and a long sleeved shirt, still wearing Oma's necklace, and I still had Sadie's collar around my wrist. I had to let them do my hair in a neat bun as well, which really aggravated me. We opened the door and walked out to where Sokka and Aang were playing earth, water, fire.

"Wow." Aang said "You look beautiful." He said to Katara. I laughed and rolled my eyes. Sokka flicked the side of his head. Katara opened her mouth to speak.

"Don't talk to the commoners Katara." Toph said "First rule of society."

"We'll get into the party and then find a way to let you in through the side gate." Katara said, Toph, Katara and I walked out of the door. We walked through town and to the entrance of the party, we waited in line.

"Invitation please." The guard said.

"I think this will do." Toph said, she pulled out her Beifong passport.

"No entry without an invitation." The guard said "Step out of line please."

"Look, the Pangs and the Yan Sun Hans are waiting in there for us; I'm going to have to tell them who didn't let me in." Toph said.

"Step out of line please." The guard repeated, we slouched our shoulders and walked away. We saw a carriage arrive in front of us. Katara smiled, the man that walked out was wearing a similar outfit to the Dai Li, I didn't like him one bit so of course we walked over to the man.

"Sir? I'm sorry to bother you but my cousin lost our invitations, she's blind, do you think you can help us?" Katara asked "Our family's inside and I'm sure they're very worried."

"I am honoured, please come with me." He said. We bowed and followed him. We walked over to the guard, the man bowed to the guard and was let in, we all stuck our tongues out at the guard as we went through the door. When we walked in I saw a very long table, at one end was a bear savagely ripping apart a cooked chicken. "It's beautiful isn't it?" the man asked "By the way I'm Long Fang, I'm a cultural minister to the king." Long Fang said, wait, Long Fang? That just makes me trust him even less.

"I'm Kwah Mai, and this is Dung." Katara gestured to Toph; Toph pulled some of her hair.

"I'm Lori." I said, using my fake name.

"Now where is your family, I'd love to meet them." Long Fang said. Katara rubbed the back of her head nervously.

"Uh- I don't see them right now but I'm sure we'll find them soon." I said.

"Thanks for all your help." Katara said. We walked forward but were stopped by Long Fang.

"Don't worry, as your escort it would be dishonourable to abandon you ladies without finding your family first." Long Fang said "We'll keep looking."We followed Long Fang around the hall trying to find 'our family'.

While Long Fang was chatting to a few guests Toph said "Twinkle Toes is here."

"Where?" I asked. I looked around the hall and saw Sokka and Aang dressed as bus boys. Toph walked over to them.

"Another crab puff please." She said.

"You found us." Aang exclaimed.

"I'd know your little footsteps anywhere Twinkle Toes." Toph said.

"That and Momo's tail." I said, I pointed to Momo's tail sticking out of Aang's hat.

"Thanks for letting us in." Sokka said.

"Sorry but the guy who escorted us in won't let us out of his sight." Katara said.

"What guy?" Sokka asked. Katara and I turned around and looked around the hall but we couldn't see him.

"What are you doing here?" I heard a familiar voice asked, I looked around and saw Joo Dee, I jumped back in surprise. "You have to leave immediately or we'll all be in terrible trouble." Joo Dee said.

"Not until we see the king." Sokka said.

"You don't understand, you must go." Joo Dee said, she pushed Sokka who fell into Aang who spilt some water on a random lady. She screamed.

"Sorry, no don't shout." Aang said. He blew air out of his foot and hand and dried off the lady, his costume came off.

"Real smooth." I said under my breath.

"The avatar, oh I didn't know the avatar would be here." The woman said, eyes all over the hall glued on Aang. Joo Dee's smiled was finally replaced with a look of worry. Aang waved and laughed nervously.

"You keep their attention while I look for the king." Sokka whispered to him.

"Watch this everybody!" Aang exclaimed, he jumped onto a table and water bended different coloured drinks into a large multi-coloured spinning ball above him. After a while the king was carried in on a big throne, almost like the ones back home. Many guards stood in front and beside the throne.

"Aang, it's the earth king!" Sokka said. Aang stopped water bending and made an air scooter.

"Greetings your majesty." He said. He rode across the table. The king was again carried away but Sokka ran after them, he was grabbed by some guards. As I stood next to Katara I heard a muffled cry, when I looked to the side I saw that Toph was gone, then I heard the same thing but to the opposite side, Katara was gone, then I made the noise myself if felt like rock hands around my mouth and stomach, they pulled me backwards. We were taken to a library; Long Fang came in with Aang and sat on a chair in front of some green fire.

"Why won't you let us talk to the king?" Sokka asked "We have information that could defeat the fire nation!"

"The earth king has no time to get involved with political squabbles and the day to day minutiae of military activities." Long Fang said.

"This could be the most important thing he's ever heard." Aang said.

"What's most important to his royal majesty is maintaining the cultural heritage of Ba Sing Se, all his duties relate to issuing decrees on such matters; it's my job to oversee the rest of the city's resources, including the military." Long Fang explained.

"So the king is just a figure head." Katara said.

"He's your puppet!" Toph exclaimed.

"Oh no no, his majesty is an icon, a God to his people, he can't sully his hands with the hourly changes of endless war." Long Fang said.

"But we found out about a solar eclipse that will leave the fire nation defenceless, you could lead an invasion!" Sokka pleaded.

"Enough! I don't want to hear your ridiculous plan; it is the strict policy of Ba Sing Se that the war not be mentioned within the walls. Constant news of an escalating war will put the citizens of Ba Sing Se into a state of panic." Long Fang said "Our economy would be broken; our peaceful way of life, our traditions would disappear. In silencing talk of conflict Ba Sing Se remains a peaceful orderly utopia, the last one on earth"

"You can't keep the truth from all these people, they have to know." Katara said.

"I'll tell them, I'll make sure everyone knows." Aang said.

"Until now you've been treated as our honoured guests, but from now on you will be watched every moment by Dai Li agents, if you mention the war to anyone you will be expelled from the city. I understand you've been looking for your bison; it would be quite a shame if you were not able to complete your quest. Now Joo Dee will show you home." Long Fang said. A woman walked into the room and stood in front of us.

"Come with me please." She said.

"What happened to Joo Dee?" Katara asked, this woman, she was not Joo Dee, but she still wore the smile.

"I'm Joo Dee, I'll be your host as long as you're in our wonderful city." Fake Joo Dee said, she bowed and smiled even brighter.

"I like the other one." I said. The others nodded in agreement.


	34. Chapter 34

We had been here for a few days and I was already bored. I was lying on the floor while Sokka was busy drawing posters for Oppa; he wasn't exactly the best artist. "We found a printer to make our posters!" Katara exclaimed, her and Aang ran in. She held up her poster, on it was a really good picture of Oppa.

"Hey, I thought designing the lost Oppa poster was my job?" Sokka asked "I've been working all day on my Oppa." Katara covered her mouth and giggled.

"Sokka, the arrow is on Oppa's head." Aang said.

"This is his head." Sokka said.

"Why are feet coming out of it?" Katara asked.

"Those are his horns!" Sokka said "I haven't seen him in a while okay?"

"It looks just like him to me!" Toph said.

"Thank you, I worked really hard on…why do you feel the need to do that?" Sokka asked, once again, Toph was blind!

"Let's just stick with the professional version." Katara said, Sokka went into a rage fit and ripped up the poster he was holding.

"Come on, let's get busy!" Aang said, he held out posters. Aang and Momo dropped posters from the sky while the rest of us stayed at home; Toph and I played catch with a small plastic ball while Katara and Sokka played something else, Toph and I were becoming really good friends, we were really alike. "I just finished dropping all the posters; did anyone come in with news about Oppa?" Aang asked.

"It's only been a day, just be patient." Katara said. Aang sat down sadly, there was a knock at the door, he shot up "Wow, you were right, patience really pays off."Aang ran to the door and slid it open to reveal the old Joo Dee. "Joo Dee?" he asked.

"Hello Aang and Katara and Sokka and Hotaru and Toph." Joo Dee said.

"What happened to you? Did the Dai Li throw you in jail?" Sokka asked.

"What? Jail? Of course not." Joo Dee said "The Dai Li are the protectors of our cultural heritage." Joo Dee said.

"But you disappeared at the earth king's party." Toph said.

"Oh I simply took a short vacation to Lake Laogai out in the country, it was quite relaxing." Joo Dee said.

"But then some other creepy woman came and replaced you and said her name was Joo Dee." I said.

"I'm Joo Dee." Joo Dee said.

"Why are you here?" Aang asked.

"Dropping flyers and putting up posters isn't permitted within the city, not without proper clearance." Joo Dee explained, holding up one of our posters.

"But we can't wait around to get permission for everything." Sokka said.

"You are absolutely forbidden by the rules of the city to continue putting up posters." Joo Dee smiled. Aang slid in front of her with a red face.

"WE DON'T CARE ABOUT THE RULES AND WE'RE NOT ASKING PERMISSION!" Aang yelled "WE'RE FINDING OPPA ON OUR OWN AND YOU SHOULD JUST STAY OUT OF OUR WAY!" he then slammed the door in Joo Dee's face.

"That might come back to bite us in the blubber." Sokka said.

"I don't care; from now on we do whatever it takes to find Oppa." Aang said.

"YEAH! Let's break some rules!" Toph yelled. She kicked the floor with her foot, making a crack which travelled to the wall and blew it clean off the house. We walked outside, I felt someone watching us so kept an eye out, but I couldn't see anyone. We had our posters with us as well.

Sokka stuck a poster to the wall and said "We'll split up to cover more area, Toph; I guess you should just go with Hotaru."

"Why? Because you think I can't put up posters on my own?!" Toph asked angrily. She grabbed the paint brush off Sokka and swiped it across the wall; she grabbed a poster and slammed it onto the glue. I face palmed, she had stuck the coloured part to the wall. "It's upside down isn't it?" she asked "I'll just go with Hotaru." She said glumly before following me. We started putting up posters when Toph said "Someone's fighting."

"Come on." I said, we ran to where we heard the fighting. When we came around the corner of an alley we saw Aang and Sokka, then Katara and…Jet?! He was pinned to the wall with ice spikes though.

"Katara what is it?" Sokka asked.

"Jet's back." She said darkly. "We can't trust anything Jet says."

"But we don't even know why he's here." Sokka said.

"I don't care why he's here, whatever the reason is it can't be good!" Katara said.

"I'm here to help you find Oppa." Jet said. He held out the poster in his hand.

"Katara, we have to give him a chance." Aang said.

"I swear I've changed. I was a troubled person and I let my anger get out of control but I don't even have the gang now, I've put all that behind me." Jet said.

"You're lying!" Katara accused. Toph pushed past her and put her hand on the wall next to jet.

"He's not lying." Toph stated.

"How can you tell?" Sokka asked.

"I can feel his breathing and heart beat, when people lie there's a physical reaction." Toph said "He's telling the truth."

"Katara, we don't have any leads, if Jet says he can take us to Oppa then we have to check it out." Aang said.

"Alright." Katara sighed. "But we're not letting you out of our sight!" She said. I water bended the ice shards back into water.

"Oh, and just so you know, I'll be laughing when karma punches you in the gut." I said to Jet.

"What is it with you and punching?" Sokka asked, I shrugged. We were taken to a shed by Jet.

"This is the place I heard about." He said. We walked in and saw it was empty.

"There's nothing here." Aang sighed.

Katara turned around "If this is a trap-"

"I told you I work nearby." Jet said "Two guys were talking about a giant furry creature they had, I figured it must be Oppa."

"He was here!" Toph and I said in unison, we held out a piece of soft white Oppa fur. Aang stroked the tuft of fur.

"We missed him." Aang said.

"They took that big thing yesterday." The caretaker said. Aang gasped. "Shipped him out to some island, it's about time, I've been cleaning fur and various-uh-leavings all day."  
>"What island?" Aang asked "Where's Oppa?!"<p>

"The farmer said some rich royal type on whale tail island bought him up, guess for a zoo or such, though it could be the meat that'd be good." The caretaker said. Sokka pulled out his map and found whale tail island.

"We've got to get to whale tail island…where's whale tail island?" Aang asked.

"Far, very far." Sokka said sadly, he laid the map on the floor. "Here it is." He said, he pointed to a relatively small island just above the South Pole. "It's near the south pole, almost all the way back home." Sokka said.

"Aang, it'll take us weeks just to get to the tip of the earth kingdom and then we'll need a boat to get to the island." I said.

"I don't care, we have a chance to find Oppa, we have to try." Aang said.

"Must be nice to visit an island, I haven't had a vacation in three years." The caretaker said.

"Don't you have some more hair to clean up?!" Katara asked.

"Shuffle on, I get ya." The caretaker said "No more me just old sweepy."

"You're right; right now our first concern has to be finding Oppa." Katara said "We can come back when we have him."

"Alright, let's get moving." Sokka said.

"I'll come with you." Jet said.

"We don't need your help." Katara said.

"Why won't you trust me?" Jet asked.

"Gee? I wonder?" Katara said.

"Was this guy your boyfriend or something?" Toph asked.

"What? No!" Katara said.

"I can tell you're lying!" Toph sung, Toph and I laughed and walked out together. We walked through the streets.

"We can take the train to the outer wall but then we'll have to walk." Sokka said.

"Don't worry, on the way back we'll be flying." Aang said.

"We're finally leaving Ba Sing Se, worst city ever!" Toph said.

"JET!" I heard someone yell. I turned around and saw Smellerbee and Longshot.

"I thought you said you didn't have your gang anymore?" Katara asked.

"I don't." he said.

"We were so worried." Smellerbee said, she ran over and hugged Jet "How did you get away from the Dai Li?"

"The Dai Li?!" I asked.

"I don't know what she's talking about." Jet said.

"He got arrested by the Dai Li a couple of weeks ago, we saw them drag him away." Smellerbee said.

"Why would I be arrested?" Jet asked "I've been living peacefully in the city." Toph was crouching near the ground with her hand on the floor.

"This doesn't make any sense, they're both telling the truth." Toph said.

"That's impossible." Katara said.

"No it's not; Toph can't tell who's lying because they both_think _they're telling the truth. Jet's been brain washed!" Sokka said.

"That's crazy! It can't be!" Jet said, we all started to close in on him from all angles "Stay away from me!" he said. We took Jet back to our house and sat him down on a chair.

"The Dai Li must have sent Jet to mislead us and that caretaker was part of their plot too." Katara summarised.

"I bet they have Oppa here in the city." Aang said "Maybe he's in the same place they took Jet."

"Where did they take you?" I asked.

"Nowhere, I-I don't know what you're talking about." Jet said.

"We need to find a way to jog his real memory." Aang said.

"Maybe Katara could kiss him?" Sokka suggested "That should bring something back." Sokka laughed, I giggled along with Toph.

"Maybe you should kiss him Sokka." Katara said.

"Guys, he's sitting right there." I said.

"Just an idea." Sokka defended.

"A bad one." Aang said.

"Oh, wait, I got it!" Sokka said. He went to a mattress on the floor and took out one of the blades of wheat in it and put it in Jet's mouth. We waited for a few moments.

"I don't think it's working." Jet said before spitting out the wheat.

"Try to think of something from your past that triggers your emotions." Toph said.

"The fire nation." Smellerbee said "Remember what they did to your family.

"Close your eyes, picture it." I said. He nodded and closed his eyes. He stayed like that until he started sweating and panting.

"No! It's too painful." Jet said.

"Maybe this'll help." Katara said. She opened her pouch and bought out some water, she put it around Jet's head and it started glowing. He closed his eyes again and started thinking.

"They took me to a head quarters under the water, like a lake." Jet said.

"Wait, what did Joo Dee say, she said she went on a vacation to Lake Laogai or something like that." I said.

"That's it!" Jet exclaimed "Lake Laogai." He said.

We had been led to the lake by Jet. It was big and blue and isolated between mountains. "So where's this secret head quarters?" Sokka asked.

"Under the water I think." Jet said. Toph pointed in a random direction.

"There's a tunnel right there near the shore." Toph said, she walked over to where she was talking about, she whistled tunefully on the way. She jumped on the sand and planted her feet firmly before pulling up her arms and a path to a small hatch at the end. Toph moved the hatch to one side with earth bending. I looked down and saw a ladder leading down.

"Kaida, wait out here." I said.

"Right." I heard her reply. She had been invisible the whole time we had been in Ba Sing Se, I would chuck food into the garden and she would get it when it was dark. Patch was hiding in my pocket like he normally does, I scratched behind his ears before we climbed down the hatch and down the ladder and then down a few flights of stairs. The end of the stairs led into a brick tunnel where a few Dai Li agents were, when the agents were gone Jet signalled for us to go forward.

"It's all started to come back to me." Jet said. He looked through a door and so did the rest of us as we went past.

"I'm Joo Dee, welcome to Ba Sing Se." A Dai Li agent said to a room of woman with blank expressions.

"I'm Joo Dee, welcome to Ba Sing Se." the women repeated at exactly the same time.

"We're so lucky to have our walls to create order." The Dai Li agent said.

"We're so lucky to have our walls to create order." The women repeated.

"I think there may be a cell big enough to hold Oppa up ahead." Jet said. We finally got to the door that Jet suggested. "I think it's through here." He said. He pulled open the door but it was just a big dark rock room. We walked through suspiciously. Suddenly the door slid shut and the lights came on, I looked up and groaned, there were _A LOT _of Dai Li agents hanging from rocks and chains in and on the ceiling.

"Now that's something different." Sokka said.

"You have made yourselves enemies of the state." Long Fang said "Take them into custody." Longshot put an arrow in his bow. All the Dai Li jumped from the ceiling and landed on the ground. I grinned; I've been itching for a good fight. When they shot their rock gloves at us Toph destroyed them and knocked two out of the way. Jet went for another two. I kicked up some rock around a member of the Dai Li, his arms and legs were trapped in the case, I sent him back into the wall, he knocked his head and passed out. I saw Toph get taken by a rock glove, I kicked myself off of the floor with earth bending and grabbed her out of mid air. Long shot pinned the guy who had tried to Toph to a wall.

"Thanks." I said.

"Long Fang is escaping!" Aang yelled.

"You and Jet go, we can handle this!" I yelled. Aang nodded, he and Jet ran off after Long Fang after Toph opened a hole in the wall for them. Toph and I fought back to back against all of the Dai Li. When we managed to knock out every Dai Li agent we followed Toph through the halls, she opened a door in a wall, when I looked into the room I saw Aang kneeling beside Jet, he was lying on the floor. We all ran to over to him. Katara pulled out some water.

"Help me." Katara said. I nodded and took half the water off of her. We knelt down beside him and tried to heal him. "This isn't good." Katara said.

"You guys go and find Oppa; we'll take care of Jet." Smellerbee said.

"We're not gonna leave you." I said.

"There's no time, just go, we'll take care of him, he's our leader." Longshot said, that was the first time I had heard him talk and I had a feeling it would be the last as well.

"Don't worry Katara, I'll be fine." Jet said, he gave her a half-hearted smile. We nodded and stood up. When we walked away I was biting back tears.

"He's lying." Toph said sadly. Toph opened a door in the wall and we ran through. We walked through the corridors until we got to a room big enough to hold Oppa, I opened the door and looked in, there were six long chains but they were all cut.

"Oppa's gone. Long Fang beat us here." Aang said.

"if we keep moving maybe we can catch up with them." Sokka said. We nodded and ran through the corridor and climbed up the stairs quickly and out of the water, back to the rock beach. We were running as fast as we could, when I looked back I saw Dai Li agents. "You think we can outrun them?" Sokka asked.

"I don't think it's gonna matter." Aang said. I looked ahead and saw a line of more Dai Li agents with Long Fang in the middle of them. They raised themselves high up on a wall; the Dai Li behind us did the same thing, blocking us in. Momo came and landed on Aang's shoulder, he chirped and purred.

"What is it boy?" Aang asked. Momo flew back up and out of sight. Suddenly a beautiful sight appeared, it was Oppa. "OPPA!" We all yelled. Oppa rammed through the wall in front of us and behind us. Toph, Aang and I ran over to the other wall and knocked the Dai Li off by using earth bending, they flung off and into the water. Oppa flew down and landed on the floor in front of Long Fang.

"I can handle you by myself." Long Fang said. He went to go and jump forward; Oppa grabbed his leg in his mouth and chucked Long Fang into the water. Long Fang bounced on the water like a skimming stone. Oppa spat out Long Fang's shoe. We all ran over to him and hugged him.

"I missed you buddy." Aang said. I saw Kaida appear and she also hugged Oppa, Patch came out and sat on my head, he licked Oppa's nose. Oppa appeared to be smiling as he licked all of us in turn. The only one missing from the group now was Sadie. The others got onto Oppa and rode him bare back while I flew on Kaida. I looked over at the others, we may be weird and awkward and we may not always agree on things but we were family.


	35. Chapter 35

We were on a small island outside Ba Sing Se. "I missed you more than you will ever know buddy." Aang said, he was still hugging Oppa. Oppa licked Aang.

"Look, we escaped from the Dai Li, we got Oppa back, I'm telling you, we should go to the earth king now and tell him our plan." Sokka said "We're on a role."

"One good hour after weeks of trouble isn't much of role." Katara said.

"We can build on it, if we wanna invade the fire nation when the eclipse happens we need the earth king's support." Sokka explained.

"What makes you think we'll get it?" Toph asked "I don't know if you've noticed but things don't usually go that smoothly in 'our little gang'."

"I know but I've got a good feeling about this, this time will be different." Sokka said.

"Sokka, Long Fang is in control of the city, his conspiracy with the Dai Li is too powerful, I think we should just keep flying and leave this horrible place behind us." Katara said.

"I'm with her; I've seen enough of Ba Sing Se." I said.

"I here ya." Toph agreed.

"But now that we have Oppa back there's nothing stopping us from telling the earth king the truth about the conspiracy and the war." Aang said.

"See, Aang's with me." Sokka said. "It's the whole reason we came here in the first place, we have to try."

"Well, I guess if the earth king knew the truth things could change." Katara said.

"I don't trust the new positive Sokka, LONG FANG BRAIN WASHED YOU DIDN'T HE?!" Toph yelled. Aang gasped and ran to the edge of the island we were on, there were three boats.

"That's probably the Dai Li searching for us." I said.

"So?" Sokka asked.

"Let's fly!" Katara said firmly. I smiled and nodded. Oppa carried the others while I rode on Kaida.

"Can we please buy a new saddle?! Riding bareback is terrifying!" Toph yelled. We kept flying.

"There it is, that whole thing is the palace!" I said over to the others.

"The earth king's chambers should be in the centre." Sokka said.

"We have to be careful, Long Fang's probably warned the king that we're coming." Katara said.

"Why would you assume that?" Sokka asked "If you ask me I think we're gonna sail in ri-"

"AAAAHHHH!" I yelled, giant rocks were being hurled at us. Kaida dodged the rocks easily, she had a long body and big wings, she was an expert flyer.

"What was that?!" Toph asked.

"More incomings!" Sokka yelled. As we flew closer Aang and I would use earth bending if the rocks got too close. There were rows and rows of Dai Li in front of the palace. Aang jumped down and earth bended them all out of the way. We landed and jumped off of our animals. As we ran through the path Dai Li appeared at the sides, Aang, Toph and I destroyed the blocks and rocks with earth bending. Katara whipped them with water from the side.

"Sorry!" She said. As more Dai Li agents appeared from the side Toph made giant dominoes out of the ground below the Dai Li and trapped them all. "Sorry! We just need to get through to see the earth king!" Katara said. When we were almost at the palace Dai Li agents appeared in front of it and shot giant rock statues at us. Toph, Aang and I made a shield over the top of us out of bricks. Katara ran out and knocked all of the agents into the small river. Aang froze the river over so they couldn't get out. Dai Li agents flooded out of the doors of the palace and shot boulders at us, they came down the steps. Toph ran in front of us all and held her hands up, suddenly all of the steps moves so it was a flat slope. Aang and Toph made the square underneath us move up and over the slope while I used earth bending to knock any Dai Li agents out of our way.

"Seriously, we're actually on your side!" Sokka yelled at the agents.

"Yeah, uh, sorry!" I said. We managed to get into the palace, we were now in a massive room with three corridors coming out of it, Dai Li agents came into the room through the corridors. Toph slammed them all against the ceiling.

"Toph, which way to the earth king?" Sokka asked.

"How should I know?! I'm still voting we leave Ba Sing Se." Toph said. While Sokka checked all of the doors the rest of us attacked the Dai Li agents. When we were done Sokka climbed over some rubble and saw some massive doors, they were the size of the whole hallway.

"Now that's an impressive door." Sokka admired "It's gotta go somewhere." We all climbed over the rubble and ran to the door. Sokka tried to kick it open but it didn't exactly work, he fell to the floor. He tried pushing it open but all to no avail.

"Just let me do it!" I said angrily. I used giant rock pillars to break down the doors, Sokka fell inside the room.

"Nicely done." Toph said.

"Thanks." I smiled.

"A little warning next time!" Sokka said. We ran into the room and saw some more Dai Li agents, they were standing in front of the earth king, and along with them was Long Fang.

"We need to talk to you." Aang said.

"They're here to overthrow you." Long Fang said.

"No, we're on your side." Sokka said "We're here to help."

"You have to trust us." Katara said.

"You invade my palace, lay waste to all my guards, break down my fancy door," the earth king said, the others looked at me angrily, I shrugged "And you expect me to trust you?!" the earth king finished.

"He has a good point." Toph said.

"If you're on my side then drop your weapons and stand down." The earth king said. Aang dropped his staff, Katara put her water away, Sokka dropped his sword, Toph put her boulder down and I stood up straight.

"See, we're friends your earthiness." Aang smiled. Long Fang put his hand up and the Dai Li agents put their rock gloves around our hands like hand cuffs. Long Fang smiled triumphantly, I so wanted to fire bend that look off his face right now!

"Detain the assailants." Long Fang commanded.

"But we dropped our weapons." Sokka said "We're your allies."

"Make sure the avatar and his friends never see daylight again." Long Fang said.

"The avatar?!" the earth king asked "You're the avatar?"

"Uh, no, him." Sokka said, he gestured to Aang.

"Over here." Aang said.

"What does it matter your highness?" Long Fang asked "They're enemies of the state."

"Perhaps you're right." The earth king said. The king's bear walked over to Aang and licked him, then he moved to me and licked me before sitting down next to me. I pulled the hand cuffs off with earth bending and scratched his ear before putting them back on.

"Basco seems to like them." The earth king said "I'll hear what he has to say." He said. I smirked as I saw Long Fang frown.

"Well sir," Aang said walking forward "There's a war going on right now, for the past 100 years in fact. The Dai Li has kept it secret from you; it's a conspiracy to control the city and to control you." Aang explained.

"A secret war? That's crazy." The earth king said.

"Completely." Long Fang said.

"Long Fang didn't want us to tell you so he stole our sky bison to black mail us and black mail is the least of his crimes!" Aang said "He brain washed our friend!"

"All lies. I've never even seen a sky bison your majesty, frankly I thought they were extinct." Long Fang said to the earth king.

"Your claim is difficult to believe, even from an avatar." The earth king said.

"Well maybe you'll believe me. I'm part of the fire nation royal family." I said.

"Hah, how stupid do you think we are?" Long Fang asked.

"Pretty stupid." I answered truthfully. I took the hand cuffs off and reached inside my pocket for my passport. I walked up to the king and handed it to him; he looked it over and nodded.

"Still, a war?" the king asked. I rolled my eyes and took back my passport. I put it in my pocket and put my hand cuffs back on and walked in line with the others.

"These hooligans are part of a cell that my agents have been tracking for weeks, if you listen to them, you're playing right into your own destruction." Long Fang said to the king.

"I have to trust my advisor." The king said. The Dai Li started to lead us away.

"Wait! I can prove he's lying!" Sokka said "Long Fang said he's never seen a sky bison, ask him to lift his robe."

"What?! I am not disrobing." Long Fang stated. I looked at Aang and raised an eyebrow, he winked, I sniggered. Aang blew out loads of air and showed a mark on Long Fang's leg. I realised what it was, it was a mark from when Oppa bit him outside the lake.

"There, Oppa bit him!" Aang said.

"Never met a sky bison huh?" Sokka asked.

"That happens to be a large birth mark, thanks for showing everyone." Long Fang said.

"Well I suppose there's no way to show where those marks came from." The king said.

"Of course there is!" Sokka said. Oppa was brought into the room and we were released from our hand cuffs. Aang opened Oppa's mouth and showed the king his tooth, he then pointed to the mark on Long Fang's leg, they matched.

"Yep that pretty much proves it." The king said. We all cheered "But it doesn't prove this crazy conspiracy theory." The king said, we all frowned and slumped over "Though, I suppose this matter's worth looking into." The king said, we all shrugged and muttered in agreement. The king had his guards escort him. We walked to the train station, while the others got on Aang and I stayed off. "Aren't you coming?" the king asked.

"I'm taking Oppa." Aang said.

"I'm taking Kaida." I said.

"Kaida?" the king asked, Kaida suddenly became visible behind me, the king jumped back and almost screamed. I laughed and got onto Kaida while Aang got onto Oppa. The train left and so did Aang and I. We were heading to Lake Laogai so we could show the king the Dai Li head quarters. We landed at the edge of the lake and waited for the earth king. Toph walked to the edge and brought up the path we used to get down earlier. But when she did it was broken and there was no sign of a hatch.

"It's gone!" Toph exclaimed.

"Oh don't tell me, that's okay, still got my positive attitude." Sokka said.

"The Dai Li must have known we were coming and destroyed the evidence." I said.

"Hmmm, that seems awfully convenient." The earth king said.

"Hey! If anything this proves the conspiracy even more." Sokka said.

"Long Fang was right, this was a waste of time." The earth king said "If you'll excuse me I'm going back to the palace."

"The wall, they'll never be able to cover that up in time!" Katara said.

"Oh yeah." Aang said. He jumped in front of the earth king and said "If you come with us to the outer wall we can prove that the secret war is real."

"No earth king has ever been to the outer wall." The king said "I don't have any more time for this nonsense."

"If you come with us, this time you can ride on Oppa." Sokka suggested slyly. I saw the earth king stop and smile. While I got on Kaida the others got on Oppa. When we took off the King yelled in fear, he was still doing this when we were flying steadily.

"First time flying?" Toph asked.

"It's both thrilling and terrifying." The king said.

"Yeah, I hate it too." Toph said.

"I have to be honest with you, part of me really hopes that what you're telling me about this war isn't true." The earth king said.

"I wish it wasn't." Aang said.

"When you find that it's real what will you do with me? I am part of the fire nation royal family?" I asked the king.

"_If_ it is real then I'll do nothing, you've already proven yourself by being with the avatar." The king said. I smiled and nodded thankfully, I looked at Aang.

"I seriously owe you more than one." I said. We flew to the outer wall and edged around it so the drill came into view.

"It's still there!" Aang said happily.

"What is that?" the king asked.

"It's a drill, a giant drill made by the fire nation to break through your wall." Sokka said. The drill has a wall around it but was still broken. We landed on the wall above the drill.

"I can't believe I never knew." The king said. Suddenly Long Fang and two agents came through the wall.

"I can explain your majesty; this is nothing more than a construction project." Long Fang said.

"Really? Then perhaps you can explain why there's a fire nation insignia on your 'construction project'?" Katara asked.

"Well it's imported of course." Long fang said "You know you can't trust domestic machinery." He said. We all looked at him, not even the earth king believed that. "Surely you don't believe these children instead of your most loyal attendant." Long Fang said. The earth king looked from us to Long Fang.

"Dai Li, arrest Long Fang." The earth king said "I want him to stand trials for crimes against the earth kingdom." Long Fang gasped, and frankly, we were shocked too. The Dai Li shackled Long Fang and pulled him back.

"You can't arrest me, you all need me more than you know!" Long Fang said.

"Looks like Long Fang is Long gone! HAHAHAHAHA!" Sokka laughed "I've been waiting to use that one." We were taken back to the palace.

"I want to thank you young heroes for opening my eyes, all this time what I thought was a great metropolis was merely a city of fools and that makes me the king fool." The king said. "We're at war with the fire nation."

"That's why we came to Ba Sing Se your highness, because we think you can help us and the war." Sokka said.

"We don't have much time, there's a comet coming this summer, it's energy will give the fire benders unbelievable strength, they'll be unstoppable." Aang said.

"But there is hope, before the comet comes we have a window of opportunity, a solar eclipse is coming, the sun will be entirely blocked out by the moon and the fire benders will be helpless." Sokka said.

"What are you suggesting Sokka?" the king asked.

"That's the day we need to invade the fire nation." Sokka said.

"That's the day of black sun." I said.

"I don't know, that would require moving troops out of Ba Sing Se, we'd be completely vulnerable." The king said.

"You're already vulnerable, the fire nation won't stop until Ba Sing Se falls, you can either sit back and wait for that to happen or take the offensive and give yourself a fighting chance." Sokka said. We all looked hopefully at the earth king.

"Very well, you have my support." The earth king said. We all hugged each other.

"Your majesty, I apologise for the interruption." Someone walked in and said.

"This is general How, he's the leader of the council of 5, my highest ranking generals." The king said.

"We searched Long Fang's office; I think we found something that will interest everybody." General How said. We were brought to How's office. Someone brought in a box. "There were secret files on everyone in Ba Sing Se, including you kids." How said.

"Secret files?" Aang asked.

"Toph Beifong." The king said, he handed her a scroll. Toph handed it to Katara, Katara opened it up.

"It's a letter from your mum, she's here in the city and she wants to see you." Katara said.

"Long Fang intercepted our letters from home, that's just sad." Toph said.

"Aang." The king said, he handed some paper to Aang.

"This scroll was attached to the horn of your bison when the Dai Li captured it." How said.

"It's from the eastern air temple." Aang said.

"Is there a letter for me and Sokka by any chance?" Katara asked.

"I'm afraid not." The king said. Katara and Sokka looked at each other sadly.

"Oh." Sokka sighed.

"But there is an intelligence report that might interest you." How said.

Katara read the report out loud "A small fleet of water tribe ships." She said.

"What?! That could be dad!" Sokka said happily.

"Protecting the mouth of chameleon bay, led by Hakoda! It is dad!" Katara said. I didn't expect anything from my family so I was surprised when How handed me a scroll.

"From Fire Lord Ozai." How said. I gasped and took the scroll off of him. I opened it up and read it. A tear fell down my cheek.

"What is it? What does it say?" Katara asked. I handed the letter to her. "Dear Hotaru, I want you to come home and do your part to help our nation in this war. Your brother and sister are at home and doing well. I will not be asking again." Katara read out. She handed the letter back to me.

"How dare he! After all this he expects me to go home, just like that?! How dare he use Zuko and Azula to taunt me!" I yelled.

"Calm down." Aang said.

"No!" I yelled, I looked over the letter again and watched as it burned. Aang walked over and put his hand on my shoulder, I smiled "Sorry." I said quietly. We all sat down on the carpet and were left alone by the king and general How.

"I can't believe it, there's a man living at the eastern air temple, he says he's a guru." Aang said.

"What's a guru?" Sokka asked "Some kind of poisonous blow fish?"

"No, a spiritual expert, he wants me to take the next step in the avatar journey. He says he can teach me to control the avatar state." Aang said.

"And I can't believe we know where our dad is now." Katara said.

"I know what you mean." Toph said "My mum's in the city and from the sounds of her letter it sounds like she finally understands me."

"This is all such big news, where do we even start?" Sokka asked.

"I hate to say it but we have to split up." Katara said.

"Split up?" Aang asked "We just found Oppa and got the family back together and now you want us to separate."

"You have to meet this guru Aang, if we're going to invade the fire nation you need to be ready." Katara said.

"Well, if I'm going to the eastern air temple Oppa and I could drop you off at chameleon bay to see your dad!" Aang said.

"Someone has to say here with the earth king." Sokka said.

"I can but I need someone with me, I have a habit of making bad decisions." I said.

"Someone needs to help with planning the invasion." Sokka said "I'll stay with Hotaru."

"No Sokka, I know how badly you wanna help dad. You go to chameleon bay; I'll stay here with Hotaru and the king." Katara said.

"You are the…nicest! ...Sister! …ever!" Sokka said, he hugged her.

"Easy there big brother…thought you're right, I am." Katara replied. We were out with Oppa just as Aang was about to leave.

"Katara, I need to tell you something." Aang said to her "I've wanted to say it for a long time."

"What is it Aang?" Katara asked.

Aang looked at the floor and rubbed the back of his head nervously "Katara I-"

"All right! Who's ready to get going on a manly man trip!" Sokka yelled.

"Aang and Sokka, I wish you a good journey, Ba Sing Se owes you it's thanks and we look forward to your safe return." The king said.

"Your majesty, there are three female warriors here to see you, they're from the island of Kyoshi." A Dai Li agent said.

"That's Suki!" Sokka yelled, he fell off of Oppa.

"You know these warriors?" the king asked.

"Oh yeah, the Kyoshi warriors are a skilled group of warriors, trustworthy too." Sokka said.

"They're good friends of ours." I said.

"Then we shall welcome them as honoured guests." The king said.

"Wait Aang." Katara said, she hugged Aang and kissed his cheek, he went bright red.

"I'm really gonna miss you guys." Toph said.

"Me too." Katara said.

"Yeah." Aang said.

"You're my best friend, of course I'm gonna miss you." I said, Katara, Aang and I all hugged her then we ran over to Sokka and made him join in the group hug.

"Great…that's enough." Sokka said "Okay, we love each other…seriously." He patted our heads. With that Aang and Sokka got onto Oppa and left. Toph hugged me one last time before going to leave.

"Wait!" I said.

"What?" she asked.

"I'm coming with you." I said. I looked at Katara hopefully; she smiled and nodded "Thank you Katara." I said, I hugged her and grabbed my bag. Toph and I walked to where the letter said. When we got to the door Toph sighed and knocked. The door swung open anyway.

"Hello?" she asked, no answer "Mum? Anyone home?" We walked into the room. Toph gasped and looked around, so did I. Suddenly metal boxes were dropped on us. "HEY! Who do you think you're dealing with?!" Toph yelled.

"One loud mouthed little brat who strayed too far from home." Xin Fu said. I looked around the corner of my bars and saw Xin Fu and Master Yu. I sat against the bottom of the box and groaned, why does everything happen to us?!


	36. Chapter 36

Chains were put around the boxes and we were put onto a coach. "I believe we need to go right." Yu said to Xing Fu.

"What are you talking about? The Beifong estate's this way." Xin Fu argued.

"I'm quite certain you're mistaken." Yu said.

"HEY! Can you two old ladies quit your bickering for a second; I gotta go to the bathroom!" Toph said angrily.

"Oh-uh-okay, but make it quick!" Yu said. Yes, so gullible!

"What's wrong with you?!" Xin Fu said, dammit.

"Oh, very sneaky Toph, nice try but you can't trick me!" Yu said.

"But she just did." I said. "LET US OUTTA HERE SO WE CAN KICK YOUR BUTTS!" I yelled.

"Quit your banging!" Xin Fu said "You might think you're the greatest earth benders in the world but even you can't bend metal!" Soon I heard some screeching in Toph's box, I stood up and tried to listen further, but I didn't need to, the metal of my doors were bent open revealing a grinning Toph. I jumped out quietly and we ran to a bush to hide. It was dark out. Yu and Xin Fu walked out and looked at the boxes.

"It's another one of her tricks." Yu said.

"There's giant holes in the boxes, how is that a trick?!" Xin Fu asked.

"It's not!" Toph said. We both stepped out of the bush and grinned darkly at them.

"It's the real deal." I said. Toph squished them together between two slabs of rock and I used a pillar of earth to kick them into Toph's box. Toph jumped forward and grabbed the metal, she metal bended the box closed?!

"I am the greatest earth bender in the world, don't you two dunderhead ever forget it!" Toph yelled.

"I am so lucky to have you as a friend." I said.

"You know it." She nodded.

"KAIDA!" I yelled, I saw Kaida become visible, I hopped on her back "Want a ride?" I asked.

"I'm good." Toph answered. She made a hill of earth that propelled her forward; we headed back to Ba Sing Se.

It was daytime again and we were almost at Ba Sing Se. I saw that Aang and Sokka also had the same idea because I saw them flying on Oppa in the same direction as we were going. I flew up next to them and waved. "What is that?" Sokka asked, he pointed down at the floor where Toph was running on an earth hill. We flew down next to her. "Want a ride?" Sokka asked. Of course she didn't see them because they're in the air so she fell off of her mountain. We winced, that has got to hurt.

"So how did it go with the guru?" Toph asked Aang.

"Oh yeah, did you master the avatar state?" I asked.

"Uhhhh." Aang said, he looked away, he was keeping a secret.

"Are you okay Aang?" Sokka asked.

"I'm great, it-it went great with the guru, I completely mastered the avatar state." Aang said "Hehe." He laughed nervously. We flew down to the palace while Aang explained why he and Sokka were here in the first place, Aang had used cosmic energy or something like that and had a vision of Katara in trouble. We went to where the earth king was in his palace.

"Katara is fine; you have nothing to worry about." The earth king said.

"But, in my vision I felt so sure that she was in trouble." Aang said.

"Well she met with the council of generals to plan the invasion and since then she's been off with your friends, the Kyoshi warriors." The king said.

"See Aang, she's with Suki." Sokka said "They're probably back at our apartment right now talking about make up or something."

"Okay, maybe you're right." Aang said.

"Believe me; if there was any danger at all Basco's animal instincts would sense it." The king said. Basco looked up and grunted. We flew back to our house, just to check that Katara was okay. There were beams holding up the wall where Toph had destroyed it. Momo was sitting in the house.

"Momo!" Aang exclaimed, Momo climbed up Aang and sat on his head. We looked around the room, it didn't look different from the last time we'd seen it.

"There's no one else here." Toph said.

"Katara is in trouble." Aang said "I knew it!"  
>"Oh no." Sokka said.<p>

"Wait, someone's at the door." Toph said, there was a knock on the door "Actually I know who it is." She said "It's an old friend of mine." She slid open the door to reveal Uncle Iroh?! "Glad to see you're okay." Toph smiled. Toph and I smiled at Uncle while Aang and Sokka jumped back and gasped.

"I need your help." He said.

"You guys know each other?!" Aang asked.

"I met him in the woods once and knocked him down then he gave me tea and very good advice." Toph said.

"May I come in?" Uncle asked.

"How do you know him?" Toph asked me.

"He's my Uncle." I smiled. I threw my arms around Uncle's neck; even though I hardly ever see him he is my only family who hasn't tried to kill me on his own will. He bowed and walked in.

"Princess Azula is here in Ba Sing Se." Uncle said.

"She must have Katara!" Aang said.

"She has captured my nephew as well." Uncle said.

"Then we'll work together to fight Azula." Aang said.

"She is going down." I said, I punched my fist into my palm.

"We'll save Katara and Zuko." Aang said.

"Whoa there, you lost me at Zuko." Sokka said.

"I know how you must feel about my nephew but believe me, when I tell you there is good inside him." Uncle said.

"Good inside him isn't enough, why don't you come back when it's outside him too!" Sokka said.

"Katara is in trouble, all of Ba Sing Se is in trouble, and working together is our best chance." Aang said. Sokka nodded, even though he did hesitate to start with.

"I brought someone along who might be able to help us." Uncle said. We walked outside and saw a Dai Li agent that had been tied up. Toph used earth bending to hold him up. Uncle removed his gag.

"Azula and Long Fang are plotting a coup. They're going to overthrow the earth king." The Dai Li agent said.

"My sister, where are they keeping Katara?" Sokka asked, he held his water tribe sword to the neck of the Dai Li agent.

"In the crystal catacombs below Ba Sing Se, deep beneath the palace." The Dai Li agent said. We flew to the palace, all on Oppa, when we got there Toph put her hand on the floor.  
>"Well what do ya know, there is an ancient city down there but it's deep." Toph said. She opened up a tunnel going down into the city.<p>

"We should split up, Aang, you go with Iroh to look for Katara and the angry jerk, no offence." Sokka said.

"None taken." Iroh shrugged.

"And I'll go with Toph and Hotaru to warn the earth king about Azula's coup." Sokka said. I hugged uncle.

"Bye." I said. He looked me up and down.

"You have grown into a wonderful bender." He said, his eyes went to Oma's necklace "What's this?" he asked.

"A spirit gave it to me." I said.

"Right." He said, him and Aang left down the tunnel. Momo came with Sokka, Toph and I up the stairs and to the palace.

"There's general How." Sokka said. We stopped and Sokka dragged us to the side. We his behind a pillar, I looked around and saw Dai Li agents. Suddenly they jumped down and captured How.

"What's going on here?!" How asked.

"You're under house arrest." The Dai Li agent said.

"The coup is happening right now, we've gotta warn the earth king." Sokka said. We ran through the hallways and got to the earth king's room. "Thank goodness we're in time!" Sokka said.

"In time for what?" the king asked.

"Yeah, what are you in time for?" I saw a Kyoshi warrior ask, except, it wasn't a Kyoshi warrior, it was Ty Lee! Ty Lee flipped over to Sokka and added "Cutie."

"Uh, I', kind of involved with Suki." Sokka said.

"Who?" Toph asked. Toph made an earth pillar and wacked Ty Lee away from Sokka; she flipped up to a pillar and stood on it.

"They're not the real Kyoshi warriors." Toph said. The king gasped, I looked at the other 'Kyoshi warrior', it was Mai.

"Sorry to disappoint you." Mai said. She threw three knives at Toph; I quickly pulled up a wall of stone in front of her.

"Thanks." Toph said. Toph kicked the rock shield at Mai but Mai jumped over it. Toph made a pillar which wacked Mai out of the way. I saw Ty Lee and Sokka fighting, Ty Lee was jabbing and Sokka was dodging.

"Ooooh, it's like we're dancing together." Ty Lee said to Sokka.

"This fight is over." I heard a blood-curdling voice say. I turned around and looked at the king; Azula was behind him and had a small blade like piece of fire ready to kill the king. We held our arms up in defeat, Ty Lee chi blocked us, we fell to the floor, god I hated being chi blocked. Momo was still flying around, a Dai Li agent shot a rock glove at him and encased his body in the rock, and Momo fell to the floor. "Get them all out of my sight." Azula said, she pushed the king forward. We were dragged away by the Dai Li and Mai and Ty Lee. We were dragged down to a metal cell and all chucked in the same one.

"See any Dai Li agents nearby?" Toph asked.

"Nope." Sokka said.

"All clear." I added. Toph stretched and cracked her knuckles; she walked over to the door, scrunched it up and pulled it off of the wall. "Let's go!" I said.

"I'm not leaving without Basco!" the king said. I grabbed his wrist and dragged him. We went to the king's room where we saw Mai, Ty Lee and Basco.

"It's easy; you just walk on your front paws instead of your rear ones." Ty Lee said, she did a hand stand. "Like this." She said. Toph earth bended her hands to the floor. She came into a crab and Toph earth bended her feet to the floor. Basco clapped.

"That is a nice trick." Toph said. I lifted a boulder up off of the floor and aimed at Mai.

"Just take the bear." She waved us off.

"Basco!" the king said. He ran over and hugged Basco.

We were now flying away in the dark, Aang was almost dead, and Katara and Aang had fought the Dai Li and Azula and Zuko. When Aang went into the avatar state Azula shot him with lightning from behind. Katara led Aang down and took out her spirit water that Paku had given her when we left the North Pole. She took out the small piece of water, it glowed magnificently. She turned him around and put it onto the wound on his back. We all looked hopefully down at Aang. The spirit water faded but the wound was still there. Katara cried into Aang's shoulder. His tattoo suddenly flashed and he groaned. Katara smiled and gasped and led him down again. Aang smiled up at her, she pulled him close and hugged him, he passed out again.

"The earth kingdom has fallen." The king said. On that sad note we flew out into the night.


	37. Chapter 37

We were on a fire nation ship! We had faked our deaths and then taken it over, it was Sokka's plan. Katara had been giving Aang regular healing sessions to keep him alive, he had been in a coma and the whole world thought he was dead!

It was night and I was looking up at the stars on deck when I heard something behind me. I saw Momo and Aang, he was awake?! And he had hair?! Momo ran onto his shoulder and licked his face. "Twinkle toes! That's gotta be you!" Toph said. We were all wearing fire nation capes over our clothes or fire nation uniforms.

"Aang you're awake!" Katara said.

"Are you sure? I feel like I'm dreaming." Aang said.

"You're not dreaming." Katara said, she hugged him "You're finally awake."

"Aang! Good to see you back with the living buddy." Sokka said from behind his fire nation helmet.

"Sokka?" Aang asked. He was about to pass out again.

"Uh oh, somebody catch him he's gonna-"I said, Aang fell over.

Aang came to again and said "Why are we on a fire nation ship? Why is everyone dressed this way? And why am I the only one who's completely out of it?"

"You need to take it easy okay, you got hurt pretty bad." Katara said. "I like your hair." She smiled.

"I have hair?!" he asked. He felt around his head. I chucked Aang a cape to wrap around himself. "How long was I out?!" he asked.

"A few weeks." Katara said.

"Everything okay?" Katara's dad, Hakoda, asked.

"We're fine dad." Katara said.

"I'm Hakoda, Katara and Sokka's father." Hakoda introduced himself, he still didn't trust me because I was Ozai's daughter but he was warming up to me.

"He knows who you are; I just called you dad didn't I?" Katara said scornfully.

"I guess you're right." Hakoda said.

"Nice to officially meet you chief Hakoda." Aang said, he held out his hand.

"It's an honour to meet you." Hakoda said, he shook Aang's hand.

"Great great, now you guys have finally met so would you mind giving us a little privacy?" Katara asked.

"Of course." Hakoda said sadly.

"Are you mad at your dad or something?" Aang asked.

"What? Not at all, why would you say that?" Katara asked. Aang gave me a sideways glance, I shrugged. Aang shrugged and then held his stomach, it was heavily bandaged. "Maybe we should go upstairs, you need a healing session." Katara said. Aang put his arm around Katara and they walked away. That morning we all sat down and talked.

"After what happened in Ba Sing Se we had to get you to safety. We flew back to chameleon bay where we found my father and the other water tribe men. The earth king decided he wanted to travel the world in disguise so he set off alone, well not completely alone, he had Basco. Soon the bay was overrun by fire nation ships, rather than fight them all we captured a single ship and made it our disguise. Since then we've been travelling west, we crossed into the serpent's pass a few days ago, we've seen a few fire nation ships but none have bothered us." Sokka said.

"So what now?" Aang asked.

"We've been working on a modified version of the invasion plan." Hakoda said.

"It's Sokka's invasion plan." Katara said angrily.

"Yes, Sokka' plan." Hakoda said sadly "We won't be able to mount a massive invasion without the earth king's armies but the solar eclipse will still leave the fire nation vulnerable." Hakoda said.

"So we're planning a smaller invasion, just a ragtag team of our friends and allies from around the earth kingdom, we already ran into Pipsqueak and The Duke." Sokka said, he gestured over to the two.

"Good to see you again Aang." Pipsqueak said.

"And the best part is the eclipse isn't even our biggest advantage, we have a secret…you." Sokka whispered.

"Me?" Aang asked.

"Yep, the whole world thinks you're dead!" Sokka said "Isn't that great?!" I looked at Aang's face, horror.

"The world thinks I'm dead? How is that good news?" Aang asked "That's terrible."

"No, it's great; it means the fire nation won't be hunting us anymore." Sokka said "And even better, they won't be expecting you on day of black sun."

"No no no no no, you have no idea, this is so messed up!" Aang said. I heard a boat horn, I turned around and saw another fire nation ship. "I'll handle this." Aang said "The avatar is back." He opened his glider but winced at the pain in his chest. He went to get onto his glider.

"Aang wait, remember they don't know we're not fire nation, well you guys aren't anyway." I said. Aang nodded and closed his glider.

"Everyone just stay calm." Hakoda said "Bato and I will take care of this." Hakoda and Bato both put their helmets on. Pipsqueak and The Duke covered up Oppa and Kaida went invisible.

"I hate not being able to do anything." Aang said.

"Hopefully you won't need to." Toph said. Sokka, Toph, Katara, Aang and I hid by the steps going below deck. The other ship stopped next to us and put planks over from their ship to ours. Three people walked over.

"Commander, why are you off course?" the man that came over asked Bato and Hakoda "All western fleet ships are supposed to be moving towards Ba Sing Se to support the occupation."

"Actually we're from the eastern fleet, we have orders to deliver some cargo." Hakoda said.

"Ahhhhh, eastern fleet, well, nice of Admiral Chan to tell us he was sending one of our ships our way." The man said.

"I'm sure Admiral Chan meant no disrespect sir." Bato said.

"I mean how hard is it to write a quick note and send a hawk our way?" the man asked.

"Next time we'll send two hawks to make sure you get the message." Hakoda said. He bowed to the man and walked away with Bato. The man and two fire navy soldiers walked back onto their own ship.

"THEY KNOW!" Toph yelled. She put her hand on the floor and metal bended the bridge away from our ship. The two soldiers and the man fell into the water. Katara and I brought up a big wave between the two ships and pushed the other one away. Our ship started up again. The ship behind us lit a boulder on fire and flung it at us, they did this many times. "Load the Toph!" Toph said. Pipsqueak grabbed some boulders that we had. I set it on fire and Toph kicked it at the ship, destroying their slingshot. Toph and I kept doing that. They had a large harpoon that they loaded and shot at us, it went through the water and into the hull of our ship. Katara used her frosty breath to freeze the hole over and stop the leak in the ship.

"I'm gonna give us some cover!" Katara said. Katara surrounded us in fog and steam. The fire balls kept coming and hit our rock supply. After a few moments we came out of the fog and the other ship were still firing at us. Katara and I put out the fires.

"How are we doing?" Toph asked.

"Things couldn't get much worse." Sokka said. Suddenly the giant serpent burst out of the water and loomed over Sokka. "The universe just loves proving me wrong doesn't it?!" Sokka asked.

"You make it too easy!" Toph said. The enemy ship fired at the serpent and angered it, the serpent dived underwater and swam over to the other ship, it dived in and out of the water and wrapped around the ship.

"Thank you the universe." Sokka said sweetly as we sailed away from the monster and the other ship. After we had sailed away and had some rest we walked down to Aang's room.

"Hey Aang, we're going into town to find some dinner." I said.

"Well I am pretty hungry." Aang said "Maybe dinner's a good idea."

"Here, tie this around your head; it'll cover your arrow." Sokka said.

"I'm not going out if I can't wear my arrow proudly." Aang said angrily, he turned around and faced the wall.

"Aang come on, be practical." Sokka said.

"You guys go ahead without us; we'll catch up with you." Katara said. Toph, Sokka and I walked out of the room. We walked out into town and bought our food. We came back and cooked a nice meal for Aang, I gave the tray to Katara and she went down to give it to him. I was up on deck talking to Bato and Hakoda about the invasion plan when Katara ran up to us; she had tears in her eyes.

"Uh, we'll leave you alone." Bato said. He looked at me and gestured to the side, I nodded and we walked away. We rode on Oppa and Kaida to an island where we saw Aang lying on the edge. Momo licked his face. He groaned and rolled onto his side.

"You're okay!" Katara said. We all shared a nice group hug.

"I have so much to do." Aang said.

"I know but you'll have our help." Katara said.

"You didn't think you could get out of training just by coming to the fire nation did you?" Toph asked.

"What about the invasion?" Aang asked.

"We'll join up with my dad and the invasion force on the day of the eclipse." Sokka said.

"Hey, what's?" Toph said, she picked something out of the water "Oh, it's your glider." She said she held it up; it was tattered, burnt and broken.

"That's okay. If someone saw it, it would give away my identity, it's better for now that no one knows I'm alive." Aang said. I looked up at the island, it was small and black and had one mountain on it, and lava was flowing. Aang jumped up onto a small hill and wedged his staff into the ground. As he jumped down and we watched it, it set on fire and burned.


	38. Chapter 38

We were going to a larger island under camouflage, cloud camo. We were bending the water around us so we looked like a cloud. "I think I see a cave below." Aang said.

"SHHHH! Keep quiet!" Sokka complained. Aang used air bending to blast the camo off of us. We climbed off of our pets. Sokka hid behind a rock and peaked around suspiciously, even though there was no one else here apart from us. "Great job with the cloud camo but next time let's disguise ourselves as a kind of cloud that knows how to keep its mouth shut." Sokka said.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want a bird to hear us chatting and turn us in." Toph said.

"HEY! We're in enemy territory, those are enemy birds." Sokka said. A bird jumped down onto his head and chirped. We all giggled and carried on walking. Sokka dived over the top of us and into the dirt before running into the cave. "Well this is it, this is how we'll be living until the invasion begins, hiding in cave after cave…after cave…after…cave…ugh." Sokka said moodily.

"Sokka we don't need to become cave people, what we need is some new clothes." Katara said.

"Yeah, blending in is better than hiding out. If we get fire nation disguises we'll be just as safe as we would be hiding in a cave." Aang said.

"Plus they have real food out there." I said.

"Does anyone wanna sit in the dirt and eat cave hoppers?" Toph asked. She slammed her fist against the wall; cave hoppers fell out and hopped around. Momo dived in and ate a cave hopper.

"Apart from Momo." I said.

"Looks like we got outvoted sport." Sokka said to Momo "Let's get some new clothes." We snuck outside someone's house where they had lines and lines of clothes, not many fitted me and had long enough sleeves to cover my arms.

"I don't know about this. These clothes belong to somebody." Aang said.

"I call the silk robe!" Katara called out, she ran in and started grabbing her clothes.

"But if it's essential to our survival then I call the suit!" Aang said. We all ran in and grabbed our clothes. I grabbed two sets of clothes. We jumped behind a rock and got changed. I was pretty much wearing the same thing as Aang but it was the only thing that had long sleeves and fit me, I also had to wear some annoying pointy toes shoes. I had another set of clothes but I would have to wear them when I was only with the gang. "Tadaa! Normal kid." Aang said. Toph had gotten changed into her stuff as well, but unfortunately that included shoes.

"Hmmmmm, I should probably wear shoes but then I won't be able to see as well." Toph said. She sat down and grabbed the sides of the shoes "Sorry shoes!" She sung. She pushed her feet through the bottom of the shoes, the sole was flung off and hit Sokka's face, it peeled off and left a shoe shaped red mark on his face. "Finally, a stylish shoe for the blind earth bender." Toph said.

"How do I look?" Katara asked. Aang looked her over and blushed.

"Uhhhh, your mum's necklace." Aang said.

"Oh, I guess it's pretty obviously water tribe huh?" she said sadly, she took her mum's necklace off. Luckily my necklace was hidden by the colour of my jacket. We walked into town to find some food and buy some other stuff. Katara bought a new necklace for herself, Toph bought a new headdress, Sokka fixed his pony tail into a topknot and I bought a red belt with red gems along it and looped it around my waist, I also bought a small collar for Patch, happy with his new clothing he crawled inside my jacket. Aang put Momo inside his jacket as well.

"I used to visit my friend Kuzon here 100 years ago so everyone follow my lead and stay cool." Aang said.

"I actually am fire nation though?" I asked.

"Anyway, stay cool, or as they say in the fire nation stay flamin." Aang winked. Nobody says that anymore, but this should be funny to watch. "Greetings my good hotman." Aang said to a random guy eating meat.

"Uh-hi." He replied. Sokka shrugged as we walked past. "I guess." He said. We walked to a food store.

"Oh, we're going to a meat place?" Aang asked.

"Come on Aang, everyone here eats meat, even the meat!" Sokka said, he pointed to a hippocow who ate some meat with flies on it, I almost barfed.

"You guys go ahead; I'll just get some lettuce out of the garbage." Aang said.

"My appetites kind of you know, gone." I said, gesturing to the fly infested meat. The others waved and walked inside.

"Hotman." Aang said to everybody as they went past.

"It's over, we caught ya." Someone said, it was a man with two guards with him.

"Who us?" Aang asked.

"It couldn't be more obvious that you don't belong here." The man said "Next time you play hooky you might wanna take off your school uniform." He said. I looked down at myself and then at Aang, dammit. We laughed nervously. The guards grabbed our shoulders and took us to the school where we were thrown into a classroom. I looked over the class and folded my arms; I really didn't want to be here.

"Oh, are these new minds ready for moulding?" the teacher asked.

"That's right, let the moulding begin." Aang said.

"Wait a minute." The teacher said, she gasped "You're not from the fire nation…clearly you're form the colonies."

"Y-yeah, the colonies, of course, my sister and I are from the colonies in the earth kingdom." Aang said.

"Your educate is terrible. In the homeland we bow to our elders." The teacher said "Like so." She bowed to us.

"Sorry mam." Aang said, he bowed to the teacher, but in the wrong way, he was bowing like an air nomad not like a fire nation citizen. She tapped his hand. A girl in the front row showed him how to do it properly. Aang then bowed properly.

"And what about you?" she asked me. I shook my head.

"Shoot all the fire you want at me, I am not bowing." I said. She looked like she was about to explode with rage.

"Very well, I'll let you off this time because you're new." She said, she looked to Aang "You don't wear head coverings indoors." She said to him, she pointed to his head band, the one that covered his arrow.

"Um-I have a scar, it's really embarrassing." Aang said.

"Very well, what is your name or should we just call you manner less colony slob?" she asked.

"Hehe, no, just slob is fine…or…or…Kuzon." Aang said.

"Lori." I said, I waved lamely at the class. We sat for the rest of the lesson before the bell rang and signalled the end of the day. Aang checked on Momo while I checked on Patch.

"It's okay buddy, we made it through the day and it was pretty fun." Aang said to Momo.

"Yeah, fun." I said.

"Don't let the headmaster catch you with those monkeys." A girl said.

"What monkeys?!" Aang asked.

"Don't worry; I'm not a tattle tale." She said "My name's On Ji." She said "I like your headband by the way." On Ji said. Someone pushed past both Aang and I.

"On Ji, you don't have to baby sit the new kid." The dude said, he was tall and put his arm around On Ji.

"Watch where you're going." I said.

"What?" he asked angrily.

"I said watch where you're going." I said louder.

"Wow, you must be one of those popular kids I've been hearing about." Aang said.

"That's right, now listen friend, I know you're from the colonies so I'll say this slowly, On Ji is my girlfriend." He said "Don't forget it." He tapped Aang's chest. He made the 'I got my eye on you' signal so I did the same thing to him.

"It was nice meeting you!" Aang said.

"I don't believe it, he didn't beat you up, not even a little." A boy said to us.

"I wouldn't give him the chance." I grinned.

"I guess we're just lucky." Aang said.

"We were on our way to play hide and explode, you wanna come?" he asked.

"I'd love to." Aang said "Lori?" he asked.

"My brother and sister use to play that with me when I was little. Sure, should be fun." I smiled. We ran off and played hide and explode until it was getting dark, which is when we went back to the cave.

"Where have you been?" Katara asked "We've been worried sick!"

"We got invited to play with some kids after school." Aang said.

"After what?!" Sokka screeched.

"We enrolled in a fire nation school." Aang said.

"And we're going back tomorrow." I said.

"Enrolled in what?!" Sokka screeched. He passed out. We all sat down and talked about it. "Aang, I'm trying to be mature and not immediately shoot down your idea but it sounds…really terrible." Sokka said.

"Yeah, we got our outfits, what do you need to go to school for?" Toph asked.

"Every minute I'm in that classroom I'm learning new things about the fire nation. I already have a picture of fire lord Ozai." Aang said.

"I dropped out of school when I was ten and went to the South Pole, this will be good for me." I said.

"Look! Here's one I made out of noodles!" Aang said, he held up a noodle poster of Ozai.

"Impressive I admit but I still think it's too dangerous." Sokka said.

"I guess we'll never find out about the secret river then." Aang smiled "It goes right to the fire lord's palace. We were supposed to learn about it in class tomorrow." He shrugged slyly.

"Hmmmmm, I am a fan of secret rivers." Sokka said "Fine, let's stay a few more days."

"Flameo hotman!" Aang yelled.

"Flameo?" Sokka asked. The next morning before we left Sokka said "Aang, make sure Hotaru doesn't punch a hole through anyone, Hotaru, don't let Aang do anything stupid." Aang and I both nodded and left for school. We walked into the classroom and to our desks. When the teacher came in we all stood up.

"Good morning class." The teacher said. She sat down and said "Recite the fire nation oath." We all turned around and spoke.

"My life I give to my country. With my hands I fight for Fire Lord Ozai and our forefathers before him. With my mind I seek ways to better my country. And with my feet may our March of Civilization continue." We recited. Aang of course got everything wrong. Everyone laughed at him. We all sat down.

"Since it's obviously hilarious to mock our national oath we'll begin with a pop quiz on our great march of civilisation." The teacher said, we all groaned. "Question one, what year did Fire Lord Sozin battle the air nation army?" the teacher asked, I frowned, that is not how it happened, I could see Aang thought that as well. Aang put his hand up. "Kuzon." The teacher said.

"Is that a trick question, the air nomads didn't have a formal military." Aang said.

"That's right, Sozin defeated them by ambush." I said. The class gawped at us.

"Well, I don't know how you could possibly know more than our national history book." The teacher said, she then looked at Aang and said "Unless you were there 100 years ago."

"I'll just write down my best guess." Aang said, he ducked down and scribbled on his sheet. Next was music, I was looking forward to this, Uncle had taught me to play many instruments. Aang had the tsungi horn, he took a deep breath in and blew on it, he was dancing at the same time as well though.

"Kuzon?" the music teacher asked.

"I know, I'm a terrible tsungi hornist." Aang said.

"No child, that hullaballoo going on with your feet, is that a nervous disorder?" the teacher asked, no, it was called dancing.

"I was just dancing." Aang said "You do dances here in the homeland right?" Aang asked.

"Not really, no." the boy that had asked us to play hide and explode said.

"Dancing is not conducive to a proper learning environment, young people must have rigid disciplined and order." The teacher said.

"But what about expressing yourself?" Aang asked.

"I know sometimes we so moved by our love for our nation that we can't control our own bodies. If you must, you may march in place quietly next time the urge hits you." The teacher said, I'd like to hit him. We started playing again, with Aang marching in place. At lunch Aang and I walked outside, everyone was looking at him like there was something wrong with him.

"Uh-hi Kuzon, I really liked that crazy dance you were doing." On Ji said.

"Thanks On Ji, I could show it to you again if you like?" Aang asked. I saw someone shoot some fire at Aang, I turned around and saw that annoying dude from yesterday.

"What did you say colony trash?" he asked "You're going to show her something?"

"Just some dance moves." Aang shrugged.

"Nobody shows my On Ji anything, especially moves." He said, he punched at Aang, Aang swerved to the side. The guy kept going at Aang and Aang kept dodging. Eventually I got bored so I stepped in. I pushed Aang back and folded my arms at the guy. "Oh please, you're just a girl." He said, he kicked some fire at me. I punched a ball of fire at him, he dodged "Oh, you're a bender?" he asked. I nodded and faced him again. He ran at me with his arm out ready to punch me. I grabbed his fist and twisted to the side, "OW!" he yelled, he pushed me back onto the floor. He looked down on me and laughed, I grinned. I led down and put my hands on the floor; I pushed myself up and flipped over the bully. I was now behind him; I released a series of quick jabs at all his nerves and blocked his chi as well. He fell to the floor in a bundle of numb nerves. Aang came out of the crowed that had gathered around us and looked angrily at me.

"He started it." I shrugged.

"I can't move." The bully shrugged.

"It's called chi blocking." I said. I saw an old man walked up to us. He looked at the bully and then at Aang and I.

"Picking fights on your second day? We need to have a conference to discuss your punishment, bring your parents to my office after school." The old man said, I guessed he was the headmaster.

"Parents, but-" Aang said.

"Don't be late!" the head master said. I saw the bully grin at us from the floor.

We were in the headmaster's office. The headmaster said "Thank you for coming Mr and Mrs?"

"Fire, Wang Fire." Sokka said, stroking his fake beard and moustache "This is my wife, Sapphire."

"Sapphire Fire, nice to meet you." Katara said.

"Mr and Mrs Fire, your son and daughter have been in school for two days and they're already causing problems, they've argued with their history teacher, disrupted music class and roughed up my star pupil." The headmaster said.

"My goodness, that doesn't sound like my Kuzon, it sounds like Lori, but not Kuzon." Katara said.

"That's what any mother would say mam, nonetheless you're forewarned, if they mess up one more time I'll have them sent to reform school! By which I mean the coal mines, are we clear?" the headmaster said.

"Don't you worry Mr Headmaster I'll straighten these kids out something fierce. You two! As soon as we get home you're gonna get the punishment of a lifetime!" Sokka yelled at us, Aang and I gasped and lent back against our chairs.

"That's what I like to hear." The headmaster said. We all went to leave. "Ah yes, Mrs Fire?" the headmaster asked.

"Yes?" Katara answered.

"I know Lori's a bender and that she enjoys combat, I have enrolled her in afterschool classes for fighting only, she will be partnered with Hide, they student she decided to fight today." The headmaster said, I groaned and walked out the door.

Back at home, or the cave, or whatever, Sokka was yelling at us "That settles it! No more school for you kids!" he yelled, he stroked his beard.

Aang walked over to Oppa and said "I'm not ready to leave; I'm having fun for once just being a normal kid. You don't know what it's like Sokka; you get to be normal all the time."

"Ha-ha!" Toph said sarcastically. Sokka narrowed his eyes at her.

"Listen guys, those kids at school are the future of the fire nation; if we wanna change this place for the better we need to show them a little taste of freedom." Aang said.

"What could you possibly do for a country of depraved little fire monsters?" Sokka asked, I punched his shoulder.

"I'm gonna throw them a secret dance party!" Aang said.

"GO TO YOUR ROOM!" Sokka commanded. The next day Aang and I invited everyone from school. While Aang went home to set up I had to go to my fighting lessons. When I got there I saw Hide waiting on a mat.

"Took you long enough." He said, I narrowed my eyes at him angrily and sat down on the mat.

"Alright students, I need you to try and beat your opponent by disabling them in any way." The teacher said. I nodded and stood up, Hide did as well. I got into my fighting stance and got ready to fight. "As soon as you do you can go home." The teacher said, wait, if they're gonna do that then what's the point in these lessons, oh well. I grabbed Hide's hand and brought it behind his back and forced him down to the floor. I chi blocked him and got up.

"Done!" I said. All the other students looked at me, I realised that they were all boys. I put my shoes back on and left the room to go back home. When I walked home everyone was coming with me to the dance party. I told them to wait outside. "We're here, everyone stop bending!" I said to the others, I looked around. Toph had made an amazing stage to play music from and had made rock tables. Katara had made an ice fountain with water and ice cups and glasses. Sokka put the last candle down. "Okay everyone! Come on in!" I said, all the students walked in, Oppa and Kaida were out back Aang had informed me. Suddenly a large gust of wind came into the cave and blew out all of the candles. Aang groaned and looked at me hopefully, I smiled and nodded. I took a deep breath in and shot very small blasts out of the ends of my fingers at all of the candles. I smiled and nodded, good. A few students got onto the stage and started playing music.

"Ladies and gentlemen! The flameos!" Aang introduced the band. "Yeah, this outta get everybody moving." Aang said to me. We looked around at the students and saw that they were just standing still in big groups.

"Now what do we do?" A boy asked.

"This is when you start dancing." Aang said.

"I don't think my parents want me dancing in a cave." Another boy said, his head sunk into his collar.

"Yeah, what if someone finds out?!" another boy asked.

"Oh boy, listen guys, dancing isn't something you think about, it's a form of self expression that no one can ever take away from you." Aang said.

"Maybe it was different in the colonies Kuzon but we don't do that here." A boy said.

"Sure you do, you have for generations, it just so happens that I know several classic fire nation dances." Aang said. I went and sat down by Toph and Katara while Aang demonstrated the dances.

"Who knew twinkle toes could dance?" Toph said, she took a drink. Katara smiled and nodded. I also saw On Ji and Aang dancing together.

"Wow, they look pretty good together." Sokka said.

"Eh, if that's what you like." Katara shrugged. Aang came over and asked Katara to dance "I don't know, these shoes aren't really right for dancing and I'm not sure I know how to uh-"Katara started.

"Just take my hand." Aang said.

"Okay." Katara said. Aang pulled her out of her seat and they went to go and dance, they were amazing and had everyone in the hall watching them.

"This is incredible, it's like my inhabitations just disappeared!" A kid said. Suddenly I saw the headmaster and some guards and Hide.

"Okay, they're back again." The kid said.

"Get our stuff ready." Aang said. I nodded and ran through the hall. I grabbed our bags and everything we needed. I ran out back to Oppa and chucked all of our stuff on apart from my bag, which I put on my back. I saw the others run in and get onto Oppa. I got onto Kaida and a few moments later Aang came back and jumped onto Oppa, he closed the entrance to where we were with earth bending and then we left.

"We're safe Sokka; you can take off the moustache now." Katara said, I looked at Sokka and found that he still had his moustache on.

"Oh no I can't, it's permanently glued to my skin." Sokka said, he stroked his beard.

"Way to go dancy pants, I think you really did help those kids, you taught them to be free." Toph said.

"I don't know, it was just a dance party, that's all." Aang said.

"Well, that was some dance party Aang." Katara said. She crawled over and kissed him on the cheek, he smiled and blushed.

"Flameo sir, fla-me-o." Sokka clapped. I laughed and carried on flying, things were finally looking up for us.


	39. Chapter 39

Kaida and I were flying while Oppa was swimming down a very grungy river. Aang and Momo were playing. "Momo!" Aang said, he ducked underwater. Momo flew over to where he was. "Oh Momo!" Aang said, he popped up in a different part of the river. Momo flew over to where he was, Aang jumped out another part of the river and Momo landed on his head. "Hehe, you found me buddy." Aang said. He jumped out of the water and back onto Oppa's saddle "Hey guys, I think this river's polluted." Aang said, all the sludgy water was oozing off of him. Aang used air bending and cleaned himself up but all the sludge went over the rest of us. Aang then dried us off with air bending.

"Well that explains why I can't catch a fish around here." Sokka said "Because normally my fishing skills are off the hook!" We all looked at him blankly "Get it?! Like a fishing hook!" Sokka said.

"Too bad your skills aren't _on _the hook." Toph said, we all laughed. Sokka frowned at us.

"It looks like we'll need to go somewhere else to find some food." Katara said. Sokka unrolled a big long schedule "Assuming it'll fit in to Sokka's master schedule." Katara added.

"Hmmmmm, it's doable." Sokka said "But that means only two potty breaks today."

"Hey, maybe we can get food there?" I suggested, I pointed down the river where there was a small town on stilts. We got Oppa and Kaida to sit down by the side of the river, hidden by some rocks. We pulled a grass camouflage sheet over them.

"There, now you look like a hill with horns." Aang said "Bye buddy!" he said to Oppa.

"Bye girl!" I said to Kaida. We got some roars in reply. We walked to the end of the ledge and looked at the town.

"I don't feel anything, where's this village?" Toph asked.

"It's in the middle of the river." Sokka said.

"Sure is!" I heard a voice say, I looked down and saw a man next to a boat "My name's Dock, mind if I ask who you are?!"

"We're-um-from the earth kingdom colonies." Katara said.

"Wow, colonials, hop on and I'll give you a ride into town." Dock said. We nodded and walked down to the steps, we were ferried across the river.

"Why do you guys live on the river?" Katara asked.

"Because we're a fishing town. At least that's how it was before the factory moved in. Army makes their metal there. Moved in a few years ago and started gunking up our river. Now our little village is struggling to survive." Dock said. When we got to the town I frowned sadly at the sight, no one was happy and everyone looked as if this was their last day.

"Thanks for the ride." Aang said.

"Look at this place, so sad." Katara said "We have to do something to help."

"No, we can't waste our time here." Sokka said "We have a bigger mission that we need to stay focused on. These people are on their own!" Sokka then walked away.

"These people are starving and you'd turn your back on them, how can you be so cold and heartless?!" Katara asked.

"I'm not turning my back, I'm just being realistic, we can't go around helping every rinky dink town we go walking into. We'll be helping them all by taking out the fire lord!" Sokka said loudly.

"Hey loud mouth, maybe we should be a little quieter when we talk about taking out the fire lord." Toph said with her hand over Sokka's mouth.

"Come on Katara, be reasonable about this, you know our mission has to come first." Sokka said.

"I guess so." Katara said.

"Let's just get what we need and go." I suggested. We walked to a big shop in the middle of the town where we saw Dock.

"Hey Dock." Sokka said, he rang the bell on the desk "You work here too?"

"I'm not Dock, I'm Xu, and Dock's my brother." He said.

"But we just saw you; you're even wearing the same clothes. The only difference is your hat." Aang said.

"Dock works on the dock that's why they call him Dock and I work in the shop, that's why they call me Xu." He said.

"I don't get it." Aang said.

"Me neither!" he said. He ducked under the counter and came up with a box "What can I get ya?" he asked. We looked in the box and saw fish that were oozing sludge out of their mouths. "Hey, I'll give you a special deal, if you buy three fish I'll throw in a clam for free." He said. Sokka pushed down one of the fish head and more sludge came out. I put my hand over my mouth and gagged.

"We'll just take the fish." Sokka said, he picked up a few fish "Mind telling your brother that we need a ride back to shore." Sokka said. Xu wrapped up the fish and handed them to Katara. He ducked under the counter again he came up wearing a different hat.

"Hey colonials! My brother says you need a lift." He said, he jumped over the counter and walked in front of us. As we started to walk away a little boy ran over to Katara.

"Please can you spare some food?" he asked. She gave him one of our fish.

"I wish I could help more." She said. I watched the boy smiled and nod happily, he ran over to what appeared to be his mother and gave her the fish, his mother nodded but said nothing. I wiped a tear from my eye and walked with the others.

That night we camped next to where Oppa was. I had brought a barrel of the water from the river and put it down, Aang bended the water and Toph bended the other stuff out of the water so we were left with clean water. "Our detour into town today has completely thrown off our schedule, its gonna take some serious finagling to get us back on track." Sokka said.

"Finagle away O schedule master." Toph said.

"Well for starters it'll look like we need to wake up 43 minutes earlier every day" Sokka said.

"43 minutes?" I asked.

"Look, we only have a few weeks to get to the fire lord in time for the invasion on the eclipse, which by the way only lasts for 8 minutes and we just lost a whole day so if we wanna make up the time and stay on schedule we have to wake up early!" Sokka ranted.

"Well I'm not waking up early." I said angrily.

"Or we could just cut out all of our eating breaks." Sokka retorted.

"What?!" Aang asked.

"No way!" Katara said.

"Forget it." Toph said.

"Not gonna happen." I added.

"I got it! How's this, from now on we'll take food breaks and potty breaks at the same time?" Sokka suggested. We all shook her heads. "Hey, it might be gross but it's efficient." Sokka said "Either way we have to leave here first thing tomorrow morning." I nodded and went to sleep curled up in Kaida. In the morning Katara was stroking Oppa sadly.

"What's the matter Katara?" Aang asked.

"I think Oppa's sick." Katara said.

"WHAT?! Oppa's sick?! That's awful!" Sokka yelled.

"Wow Sokka, I didn't realise you cared so much." Toph said.

"Of course I care, I might as well just throw our schedule away now!" Sokka said. We all looked at him angrily. "And I'm concerned because my big furry friend doesn't feel well." Sokka stroked Oppa.

"He must've gotten sick from being in the pouted water." Toph said.

"He doesn't look sick." Aang said. "You okay buddy?" he asked. Oppa roared. Aang pulled Oppa's tongue out of his mouth "His tongue is purple, that can't be good. Katara can you heal him?"

"It looks like he needs some medicine." Katara said "Maybe we can find the right herbs in town?" We all agreed and went to town.

"Is it just me or does this place seem different?" Toph asked. She was right, kids were playing and people were laughing and talking and jumping between decks, I smiled, it was a really nice sight.

"Yeah, are the people…happier?" I asked. A little boy ran past us kicking a ball.

"Hey Xu, what's going on with everyone today?" Sokka asked.

"Ah, something amazing happened last night, food was delivered to our village by a mysterious and wonderful person, the painted lady." Xu explained happily.

"The painted who now?" Katara asked.

"The painted lady, she's part of our town's lore, they say she's a river spirit who watches over our town in times of need." Xu said, he put a statue on the desk of a lady in brown robes with a big hat, red markings and a moon symbol on her forehead. "I always thought she was just a legend until now." Xu said.

"See, we don't need to help these people, they already have someone to help them!" Sokka said "All we need is medicine for our sick friend."

"Medicine? Sorry, all the medicine we have goes to the factory, that's why there's so many sick people in our village." Xu said.

"Looks like we need to stay another night so Oppa can rest." Katara said.

"Ugh, I guess you're right." Sokka groaned "You got any more food to sell?" Xu ducked down and came back up with two fish.

"Would you like the one headed fish or the two-headed fish?" Xu asked.

"Two-headed!" Sokka looked at our disgusted faces and said "What? You get more for your money that way!" We all gagged and ran away. That night we went back home and went to sleep. The next morning we went back to Dock's stall where he was polishing his painted lady statue. "Hey Dock, is Xu around?" Sokka asked.

"Let me check." Dock said. He ran around the stall and ducked down out of our sight, he came back up with a different hat on. "Hey there, back again are ya?" Xu asked.

"We need more food, our friend is still sick and we can't leave until he's better." Toph said, she slammed some money down on the table. Xu gave us a basket of food.

"Oh, well that's too bad, maybe if you guys are lucky the painted lady will visit you in the night and heal your friend." Xu said.

"Hey, maybe she'll cook us a midnight snack and we'll all have a sing along." Sokka said sarcastically.

"Yeah, maybe. You know last night she visited us again, healed most of our sick folks." Xu said.

"Is that why this place seems so festive?" Aang asked. I looked around; everyone was laughing and cheering as they pulled up a giant statue of the painted lady.  
>"It's all because of the painted lady." Xu said.<p>

"Can you believe how much an entire village can be affected by one lady?" Katara asked "I mean spirit."

"Well I hope she returns every night otherwise this place will go right back to the way it was." Sokka said.

"Why would you say that?" Katara asked "Look how much better off these people are."

"Yeah, now, but without her they wouldn't be able to fend for themselves. If she really wanted to help she would use her spirit magic to blow up that factory." Sokka said. He wiggled his arms up and down and made weird noises before throwing his arms up in the air and making an exploding noise.

"Spirit magic doesn't work that way Sokka." Aang said "It's more like." He started to wiggle his arms side to side and made different noises to Sokka before bending down and making the exploding noise. Katara stormed off, Toph and I followed her as Sokka and Aang did their spirit magic. We went back to camp and made our food, we ate and went to sleep.

In the morning I was woken up by Sokka. "Katara and Aang are gone." He said. He held up some hay, which had been in Katara's sleeping bag, making it look like she was still there. We waited for them. They walked around the corner a few minutes later.

"Oh hi Sokka. We were just out on a morning walk." Katara said.

"Oh really, a morning walk?!" Sokka asked, he poured some hay out of her sleeping bag to prove his point. "I know you're the painted lady!" Sokka said. Wait what?! OH, I get it now, healing, water bending. "I know you've been sneaking out at night and I know you've been lying about Oppa and feeding him purpleising tongue berries!" he pointed at Toph, she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue, it was purple. She held up a bag of berries she had been eating. "Katara, what you did put our whole mission in jeopardy. We're leaving right now." He said angrily. Katara nodded sadly and carried on, when Aang got to Sokka, Sokka asked "And how long did you know about this?"

"Hey, I just found out this morning." Aang shrugged and ran away. I turned around and looked down the river, I saw smoke, it was billowing out of the factory, which had been destroyed! We started to pack our stuff and get ready to leave when we heard noise, we looked down at the river and gasped, many small and speedy boats were going towards the town.

"What's going on?" Toph asked.

"Fire nation soldiers are heading to the village." I said.

"What did you do?" Sokka asked Katara.

"I kind of destroyed their factory." Katara said as if it was no big deal.

"You what?!" Sokka asked angrily.

"It was your idea!" Katara retorted.

"I was joking, I also said to use spirit magic and made funny noises!" Sokka said, he slapped his forehead in frustration. Katara looked away embarrassingly. "Did you even think this through?! The army's going to blame the villagers; they're heading there right now to get revenge!" Sokka said.

"Well what was I supposed to do?!" Katara asked.

"Leave!" Sokka said "Do nothing."

"NO! I WILL NEVER EVER TURN MY BACK ON PEOPLE WHO NEED ME!" Katara yelled. Sokka edged back in fear. "I'm going down to the village and I am going to do whatever I can." She said determinedly, she stood up and walked away.

"Wait! I'm coming too." Sokka said.

"I thought you didn't want to help?" Katara asked.

"You need me and I will never turn my back on you." Sokka said.

"Sokka, you really do have a heart." Katara said, they had a nice brother sister hug. Aang wiped tears from his cheek.

"He really does have a heart doesn't he?" Aang sniffled. Both Toph and I punched Aang to the floor and then high fived each other. We looked at the town from the edge of the cliff we were on. I watched as the guards pulled out stilts from under houses and plunged them into the sludge below. Finally we headed down. I saw the guards set a pot of food on fire, Aang blew out the fire. They tried to set it on fire again, Aang blew it out again.

"Light it again!" the head fire nation soldier yelled. As soon as the lit it Aang blew it out.

"Look at that, where's it coming from?" a female soldier asked.

"I dunno." Another soldier answered. Katara, Aang and I used water bending to make a screen of fog. Oppa was roaring and stamping on the floor to make noises. The fog finally engulfed the town. Sokka grabbed a flute and started playing a creepy tune.

"What is that sound?" a soldier asked.

"Maybe it is the painted lady." A soldier stuttered. Aang and I pulled the fog to the side, revealing Katara in her painted lady costume. She sailed towards the town and jumped in front of the soldiers.

"DO SOMETHING!" the lead soldier yelled. The other two soldiers pulled out some weapons and edged towards Katara shakily. Aang dived into the water and went under the deck, he blew upwards and scared the soldiers, and they ran away. "Stand your ground!" the lead soldier said. Katara moved forward and I water bended the fog with her. Katara water bended their boats up on giant spouts and threw them into a cliff. She held her hand up to the other soldiers, they ran away and got into the few remaining boats and sped away. "I'll take care of you myself!" the last soldier said, he was the leader. He made a wave of fire and whipped it towards Katara. Aang blew Katara up into the air and out of danger and then punched the soldier away; he skimmed on the sludgy water. Katara walked across the water and appeared in front of him.

"Leave this village and never come back." Katara said. He nodded shakily and swam away as fast as he could. Sokka, Toph and I got into a boat and rowed towards the town, they were cheering, whistling and hollering at the top of their lungs. Katara jumped off of the water and down onto the deck.

"I knew you'd come." A little boy said.

"Thank you." Dock/ Xu said.

"You're the best!" another villager yelled.

"Me and my brothers really owe you a lot." Dock/ Xu said. "Hey, wait a minute, I know you, you're not the painted lady, you're that colonial girl." He said. I looked at Katara; the paint was coming off of her face and arms.

"Yeah, you're the lady that gave me a fish." The little boy said.

"You've been tricking us!" Dock/ Xu yelled "You're a water bender!"

"She's a water bender!" another villager accused "How dare you act like our painted lady!" All the villagers started to move angrily towards Katara.

Sokka ran in front of her "Maybe she is a water bender but she was just trying to help you! Because of her that factory won't be polluting your river and the army is gone, you should be down on your knees thanking her!" he yelled.

"Sokka, it's okay." Katara said, she walked forward and took off her hat "I shouldn't have acted like someone I wasn't and I shouldn't have tricked you but I felt like I had to do something, it doesn't matter if the painted lady is real or not because your problems are real and this river is real, you can't wait around for someone to help you, you have to help yourself." She said.

"She's right, but what should we do?" Dock/ Xu asked.

"Maybe we can clean the river!" Toph said in a fake voice from behind the crowd.

"Yeah, we can clean the river!" Dock/ Xu said, the villagers replied with cheers. "Thank you, you know, you're not so bad for a water bender." He said to Katara.

"You wouldn't mind keeping that a secret by the way, would you?" Sokka asked.

"No problem." Dock/ Xu said "Keeping my mouth shut is a personal speciality. My brother Xu on the other hand, ho, he's a blabbermouth." Dock said. Sokka face palmed.

"So, Dock, are you gonna help us clean?" I asked.

"No mam, I'm gonna get my other brother Bushi, he loved cleaning rivers." Xu said. He took off his hat to reveal another hat that puffed out. "Alright, I'm Bushi! Let's get some river cleaning done." Bushi said.

"Aha, I knew it; I knew you were the same guy, the shop owner and the boat guy." Aang said.

"Oh you must be talking about my brothers Dock and Xu." Bushi said.

"No, I just saw you! You switched hats and called yourself a different name." Aang said angrily.

"Oh, you know who does that? My brother Dock, he's crazy…" Bushi whispered "HAHAHAHA!" I looked at Aang; he was so mad that smoke could actually be pouring from his ears. Bushi/ Dock/ Xu walked away. We then got to clean the river; the villagers used very tight nets to separate water and mud. Katara and I water bended and Aang and Toph earth bended lots of water and earth at a time to help. When night fell the water was blue and clean again. We then went back to camp, packed most of our stuff, slept, packed the rest of our stuff and left the jolly river town in the morning


	40. Chapter 40

We were sitting down and watching a star shower, it was beautiful, the stars shot across the dark velvet sky. "Wow, this is amazing to watch." I said.

"Kind of makes you realise how insignificant you are." Sokka said.

"Eh, you've seen nothing once, you've seen it a thousand times." Toph shrugged. Suddenly one came really close, it glimmered an amazing blue colour.

"Oh man, you've never not seen anything like this." Sokka said, we all sat up. The star came so close that it seemed like we could touch it, it almost took our head off, it flew past us and exploded somewhere in the distance. Even Toph realised what had just happened. We saw a fire start, the others got onto Oppa and I got onto Kaida, we flew to where the star crashed.

"The fire is gonna destroy that town!" Katara warned us, I squinted and looked through the smoke, I saw a small fire nation town, we flew down to the floor.

"Not if we can stop it!" Aang said.

"There's a creak over here, I'll bend the water onto the fire." Katara said.

"Toph, let's make a trench to keep the fire from coming any closer, Hotaru, try and make the fire as small as possible." Aang said. I nodded and ran with them.

"What should I do?" Sokka asked.

"Keep an eye on Momo." Aang said.

"So what? I'm just a lemur sitter?" Sokka asked. He patted Momo's head "There there, feel better?"Aang and Toph made a trench around the fire with earth bending and I stopped fire from going anywhere else and tried to push it in, but it was hard with this much fire. I saw Katara fly back on Oppa a few moments later with a giant bubble of water behind her. She sprayed it all over the fire, I sighed in relief as most of the fire went out, it was hard fire bending that much fire at the same time. The next lot was easier, Toph flattened out the fire with large earth slabs, Katara passed some water to Aang and I.

"Sokka, stay clear." Aang said.

"Right, staying clear." Sokka said glumly, he grabbed Momo and got up, he started to slowly walk out of the way, of course he wasn't going fast enough so when Aang and I sprayed the fire Sokka was drenched.

"Good work everybody." Aang said. I looked up and saw that it was snowing, Sokka came out a pile and Momo was sliding around on the ice.

The next morning we ate in a café. "These people have no idea how close they were to getting toasted last night." Aang said.

"Yeah, the worst thing about being in disguise is we don't get the hero worship anymore, I miss the love." Toph said.

"Boohoo, poor heroes." Sokka scoffed, he was sitting on the edge of the balcony and away from us.

"What's your problem?" Katara asked "You haven't even touched your smoked sea slug."

"It's just, all you guys can do this awesome bending stuff like putting out forest fires and flying around and making other stuff fly around." Sokka said "I can't fly around okay? I can't do anything."

"That's not true, no one can read a map like you." I said.

"I can't read at all." Toph added.

"Yeah, and who keeps us laughing with sarcastic comments all the time?" Aang asked "I mean, look at Katara's hair right? What's up with that?"  
>"What?! What's wrong with my hair?!" Katara asked quickly, stroking her hair.<p>

Aang winced and said "Nothing, I was just trying to-"

"Look, I appreciate the effort but the fact is each of you is so amazing and so special and I'm…not. I'm just the guy in the group who's regular." Sokka said.

"I'm sorry you're feeling so down." Katara said, she got up and sat next to him "But I hope you know none of us see you that way." She thought for a moment "I know something that's gonna make you feel better." She said.

"You do?" he asked.

"SHOPPING!" he said happily, we had bought him to a weapon shop. I looked around happily, this was heaven to me. "Maybe a little something to reinvigorate my battling." Sokka said. He picked some nunchucks. "HYA!" he yelled, he swung them around but hit himself in the head. I picked them off of him and put them back on the shelf. Next Sokka tried a spear, he twisted it up and it flew away, he tried a club but could barely lift it off of the ground, he tried Duo swords but wasn't very good at using them, he tried a chain but tied himself up in it, he grabbed a dagger but ended up picking his teeth with it. Finally he saw a sword on the shelf and gasped, he walked over to it and said "That's what Sokka's talking about."

"Good eye, that's from Master Piandao, the best master and sword maker in fire nation history, he lives in the big castle up the road from here." A shopkeeper said.

"That's it!" Aang exclaimed "That's what you needed all along Sokka."

"A sword?" Sokka asked.

"Not the sword, a master." Aang said "We've all had masters to help us get better, you should see if you can study with Piandao." He said. I smiled brightly, I knew Piandao, he taught me and Zuko to fight with weapons.

"That's a great idea, I could have never gotten to where I am without Master Paku, and everyone needs a teacher." Katara said.

"I learned from badgermoles, they don't talk but they're still good teachers." Toph said.

"It would be nice to be a master sword fighter." Sokka said "Alright, I'll talk to him." He decided.

"Piandao is a really good teacher." I said.

"How do you know?" Katara asked.

"He taught me and Zuko." I said.

"Wow, impressive." Katara said. I went with Sokka to Master Piandao; I wanted to see my old master. Sokka knocked on the door by swinging one of the giant handles. Nobody answered so he knocked again, nobody answered; he used both of the handles to knock on the door. The door was opened.

"Can I help you?" an old guy asked.

"I've come to train with the master." Sokka said.

"And you?" the guy asked.

"I've come to say hi to my old master." I said. He nodded and turned back to Sokka.

"You should know he turns almost everyone away, what did you bring him to prove your worth?" the guy asked, he held out his hand.

"Well, uh, Uhhhh." Sokka stuttered.

"Right, let's get this over with." The guy said. He waved Sokka and I in. We walked through the courtyard and into Master's massive castle. When we walked into his room we saw Master Piandao. He was painting. We walked over.

"Master, it's good to see you." I said. I walked over and smiled and Master, he looked blank faced and then he laughed. He hugged me.

"Good to see you." He said.

"Good to see you too." I smiled.

"Are you staying?" he asked.

"No, sorry, I need to get back to my friends." I said.

"Okay, thank you for coming, Fat will show you out." Master said. I nodded and followed his apprentice out of the door and away from the castle. I went back to camp where I found the others.

"So, what are we gonna do?" Aang asked.

"I don't know, I already picked my toes, twice!" Toph said.

"Twice?" Aang asked.

"The first time is for cleaning but the second time's just for the sweet picking sensation." Toph said.

"Sokka's been in charge of the schedule, I'm not sure what we should be doing." Katara said.

"Plus it's so hot today."Toph said.

"How hot is it?" Aang asked, he wanted a funny sarcastic reply.

"I don't know, real hot?" Toph said.

"I-it's so hot, it's so hot, Momo, is, is, shedding like Oppa!" Katara said, she got no laughs in reply. "Huh, huh?" she asked, Aang and I face palmed.

"I guess the jokes don't run in the family." Aang said.

"Oh, everyone's a critic!" Katara said. We looked at the map. "So, where are we going next?" Katara asked "We're starting from here."

"No, we're over on this island." Aang said.

"You noodlebrains don't know what you're doing, I miss Sokka." Toph said.

"Ooh! Ooh! I got one! If you miss him so much…why don't you marry him?!" Katara said. We all looked away.

After a few minutes of lying around Toph jumped up and exclaimed "Sokka's coming!" We gasped and looked up, it was so boring without Sokka.

"Hey guys." Sokka said, he was wearing a robe "What're ya doing?" he asked.

"SOKKA!" We all exclaimed, we all had a big group hug.

"You're back!" I said.

"We missed you so much." Katara said.

"Say something funny." Aang pleaded.

"Funny how?" he asked, Katara, Aang and I burst out laughing. "What's their problem?" he asked Toph.

"I don't know, they missed you or something, I didn't care." She said, she turned around and blushed, I gave her shoulder a friendly punch.

"Thanks, that warms my heart. Anyway, I need some help." Sokka said. We nodded and ran to where the meteor had crashed the day before. We went into the hole and moved it out.

"Toph and I can use earth bending?" I suggested.

"That'll be good." Sokka answered. Toph and I earth bended the rock out of the crater, I loved earth bending more than any other bending. We rolled it up to Master Piandao's castle. Sokka knocked on the door like he did before, quickly and with both handles. When the door opened Piandao appeared.

"Who's this?" Piandao asked.

"Oh, these are my friends, just other good fire nation folk." Sokka said. He bowed to us all.

"Do you think we can make a sword out of a meteorite?" Sokka asked. Piandao ran his hand over the surface of the large stone.

"We'll make a sword unlike any other in the world." Piandao said. We watched Sokka work through the day and the night, he chiselled, shovelled, melted, poured, hammered, cooled and made his sword. Once Sokka's sword was made Piandao took us to the main hall. "Sokka, when you first arrived you were so unsure, you even seemed down on yourself, but I saw something in you right away, I saw a heart as strong as a lionturtle's and twice as big. And as we trained, it wasn't your skills that impressed me, no it certainly wasn't your skills, you showed something beyond that." Piandao got Sokka's sword and unsheathed it "Creativity! Versatility! Intelligence! These are traits that define a great swordsman, and these are the traits that define you." Piandao said, he knelt down and held the sword to Sokka. Sokka took it. "You told me you didn't know if you were worthy but I believe that you are more worthy than any man I have ever trained!"

"I'm sorry Master, you're wrong, I am not worthy. I'm not who you think I am, I'm not from the fire nation, I'm from the southern water tribe." Sokka said sadly. We all slapped our foreheads and groaned. "I lied so that I could learn swordsmanship from you, I'm sorry." Sokka went up to give his sword back.

"I'm sorry too." Piandao said, suddenly he drew his sword and swiped at Sokka. We went to get up to fight too.

"No, this is my fight." Sokka waved us off "Alone." The fight was taken outside, I stayed in, I didn't particularly want to watch my friend and master fight. I heard sounds of fighting so I couldn't resist, I walked out next to Aang, Katara and Toph. I saw Piandao disarm Sokka and hold his sword to Sokka's face, Piandao had dirt in his eyes. We jumped down and went to attack. Piandao put away his sword.

"Excellent work Sokka." Piandao said. He turned to us, eyes closed because of the dirt "I think I'm a little old to be fighting the avatar." He said. We gasped, how did he?

"How did you know?" Aang asked.

"Oh I've been around a while, you pick things up, of course I knew from the beginning that Sokka was water tribe. You might want to think of a better fire nation cover name, try Lee, there's a million Lees." Piandao said.

"But why would you agree to train someone from the water tribe?" Katara asked.

"As I have taught Hotaru before, the way of the sword doesn't belong to any one nation; knowledge of the arts belongs to us all." Piandao replied, he got Sokka's sword off of the floor and presented it to him again "Sokka, you must continue your training on your own, if you stay on this path, I know that one day, you'll become an even greater master than I am." Piandao said, Sokka nodded and smiled. They both bowed to each other. We walked out of the castle doors and started down the path.

"WAIT!" I heard someone yell; I looked behind us and saw Fat. "The master wanted you to have this, as something to remember him by." Fat handed him a pouch and left. Sokka opened it and poured out the contents.

"It's a Pai Sho tile." Sokka said.

"The white lotus, huh." Aang said.

"What does it mean?" Katara asked.

"I have no idea." Sokka replied. The door closed behind us, I looked around and saw that the door had a fire nation symbol in the middle of a giant white lotus. "Ooh, that reminds me. Toph, I thought you might like this." Sokka said, he dug something out of his pocket "Since you've probably never had a chance to bend space earth before." Toph took a rock off of Sokka.

"Sweet! Check this out!" she said, she made it into different shapes, like stars and spirals and splat shapes.

"Oh man, now I want some." I said.

"That's why I got this as well." Sokka said happily, he held out another small rock of space earth.

"Yes!" I exclaimed, I took the rock off of him thankfully and made different shapes out of it.

"I don't know there's such a thing as 'space earth'." Katara said "If it's from space then it's not really earth." She said.

"Must you ruin everything?" Sokka asked.

"I can't believe I missed you." Katara said.


	41. Chapter 41

We were stopped by a lake in a ditch, surrounded by mountains, completely hidden. "Aang, I know swimming is fun and all but do you really think you should be exposing yourself like that?" Toph asked "Cover up."

"What? I'm wearing trunks." Aang stated, he floated along the water with Momo.

"I know, it's your tattoos I'm worried about!" Toph said, she was sitting on a small rock in the middle of the lake "What if someone sees you?"

"There are walls all around us, it's completely safe." Katara said. I saw Aang head down a small waterfall at the edge, like a waterslide basically. I saw him jump back up over the wall a few moments later.

We spent the rest of the day playing in the water and messing around before we curled up and went to sleep. "Guys, you're all going to think I'm crazy." Toph said. We all sat up and rubbed our eyes "But it feels like a metal man is coming." She said. Aang groaned so I looked over at him; something was shining in his eyes. I looked to where the glare was coming from, I squinted and saw a tall man on the cliff, the moonlight was reflecting off of his metal arm. Sokka grabbed his boomerang. The metal man took a deep breath in and something fired at us. I stood up quickly but was pushed back by force, whatever he fired at us exploded on the rock in front of us. I stood up and got Kaida. Toph was already up and on it, she sent a rockalanch towards him, he blew a hole through it. The explosion travelled down and in front of us, fire came forward, I blocked the fire using fire bending. Katara ran forward and brought up a big wave, he blew through that as well, smoke came everywhere from the fire and water meeting. The man fired through the smoke anyway, he missed but was still pretty close. I stumbled backwards and grabbed my bag of clothes and items. I put the straps around my shoulders and ran behind a rock with the others.

"This is crazy!" Sokka said "How can we beat a guy who blows things up with his mind?!"

"We can't, jump on Oppa; I'll try to distract him!" Aang said. Aang ran into the smoke and jumped up and out of the mountains we were surrounded by. We grabbed all of our stuff and got onto Oppa, well, I got onto Kaida. We flew out of the very big ditch and saw Aang and metal man fighting between large rock pillars. Metal man made an explosion in front of Aang, Aang covered himself in earth and was shot up into the air, the rock fell off of him and he started to fall as well. Kaida and I dived down and caught him, we went back up and flew alongside Oppa, Aang jumped off and landed on Oppa. "I'm okay." Aang said, he was panting, Katara hugged him.

"Well that was random." Toph said.

"I don't think so; I get the feeling he knows who we are." Katara said.

One day Aang just woke up and said "I need to go to Roku's home island and speak to him on the summer solstice." We just nodded and left straight away. We were in the middle of travelling in cloud camo when Aang said "There it is, that's Roku's home." We flew down and landed on the edge, I looked around, it was a very small island with two volcanoes, nothing was here, it was barren, it didn't even have any lava.

"But there's nothing here." Katara said once we had landed.

"Yes there is." Toph said "An entire village, hundreds of houses, all completely buried in ash." Aang sat down on a high rock and meditated, I yawned and realised I was really tired. Kaida curled up in a ball around me and we went to sleep, it was getting dark. In the morning Aang explained to us what happened in Roku's life. Sozin and Roku were best friends, which surprised me, when Sozin proposed the war Roku said no. Then he went away and mastered the elements, he was even friends with Monk Gyatso. Roku had said to Aang that some friendships last a lifetime. when he came back he was still friends with Sozin, but that stopped when Sozin had already started the war, Roku only spared him because they were once friends. Roku went away and spent his time on his home island, this island, with his wife. One day the volcano erupted, he was doing well until the other volcano erupted; Sozin then appeared and helped Roku. They managed to fight the volcanoes but they couldn't stop them, so they ran. They both avoided the poisonous, toxic gases until finally Roku got a big blast of some, he pleaded Sozin to help but Sozin left, Roku and his pet dragon, Fang, stayed together until the last minute. At that point Aang was born, Sozin used the comet to wipe out the air nomads but Aang wasn't there.

"I can't believe that after all Sozin and Roku went through together, even after Roku showed him mercy, Sozin betrayed him like that." Katara said.

"It's like these people are born bad." Toph said.

"No, that's wrong; I don't think that was the point of what Roku showed me at all." Aang said.

"Then what was the point?" Sokka asked.

"Roku was just as much fire nation as Sozin was, right? If anything, their story proves that anyone is capable of great good and great evil." Aang said "Everyone, even the fire lord and the fire nation have to be treated like they're worth giving a chance and I also think it was about friendship." He said.

"Do you really think that friendships can last more than one lifetime?" Toph asked. I held her hand and Aang grabbed her other hand.

"I don't see why not." Aang said. Katara took my other hand in hers.

Sokka looked away from us and said "Well, scientifically speaking there's no way to prove that-"

"Oh Sokka, just hold hands!" Katara said to him. He grabbed her hand. We all hugged and looked out at the ocean.


	42. Chapter 42

We had set up camp outside a fire nation city. Katara and Toph were in the middle of training both Aang and I. Toph got into her stance and Katara made long tentacles around her arms. Aang and I put on some blindfolds and turned around. "Okay, we're ready for training." Aang chirped happily. We got into the right stances; I tapped my foot on the ground and felt where Toph and Katara were. We swerved side to side as rock pillars shot out of the ground at us. Katara shot water jets at us; I ducked down and rolled out of the way. I felt Aang kick a boulder out of the ground and throw it at Toph, she caught it easily.

"Good job twinkle toes, visualise and attack." Toph said "Visualise, then attack." she punched the boulder at me, I ducked underneath it by sinking into the ground. I heard a grunt and felt Katara get pushed down.

"Maybe you should take your own advice Toph." Katara said.

"What's the matter? Can't handle a little dirt Madam Fussy Britches?" Toph mocked, Katara twitched. She brought a wave up from the river behind her, let it pass over Aang, her and I and then soaked Toph.

"Oh sorry, did I splash you mudslug?" Katara asked angrily. Toph shook with anger and jumped on a hill or rock and rode towards Katara, Katara jumped on a hill of ice and rode towards Toph. I stopped Toph while Aang stopped Katara; they both flew off of their rides and landed in some wet mud.

"Are we taking a break?" Sokka asked.

"HAAAAAAAAA! SNEAK ATTACK!" I heard Sokka yell, I felt his footsteps run towards us.

"Do you wanna?" I asked.

"Sure." Aang shrugged, he bought a pillar of rock out of the ground, Sokka ran into it.

"Sokka, sneak attacks don't work if you yell it out loud." I said. Both Aang and I took our blindfolds off. I saw some mud splat on the ground in front of us; I looked at where it came from and saw Katara and Toph wrestling in the dirt.

"Hungry for a mud pie?" Toph said. She kicked some mud up into Katara's face.

"I'll give you a mud pie!" Katara retorted. She threw some mud down on Toph; Toph was pushed down into the ground. She stood back up quickly and made Katara fly across the pit with earth bending. She ran over and prepared to jump on her with her elbow.

"Uh guys." Aang waved "I thought we were supposed to be training us?" The both settled down as if nothing had happened.

"Very well pupils, I believe we've had enough training for today." Katara said, she walked away.

"While Katara cleans up, let's go have some fun!" Toph exclaimed, she earth bended all the mud out and off of her hair and clothes.

"Yeah!" Sokka, Aang and I said in unison.

"Hurry up mudslug!" I said jokingly.

"Coming Ashweasel!" Toph laughed. We went to the nearby town where there were chimneys with black smoke in almost every house; there were stalls and games to play in the alleys and streets. At the moment we were walking along a high road. Sokka held his sword behind his shoulders happily and looked up at the sky.

"Look at all those messenger hawks." He said "You know, I've been thinking about getting one for myself, that way, I wouldn't have to talk to anyone! I could just send them messages." Sokka said.

"I gotta say, I like the idea of not talking to you." Toph said. Sokka gave her a dirty look in reply.

"So guys, what are we gonna get with our last silver piece?" Aang asked.

"We can get more money, right there." Toph said, she pointed down into the alley below us. I looked down and saw that game where someone puts a stone under one of three cups and then moves them around, then you choose which ne you think it's under, if you guess right they give you more money than you gave them. We walked down to the game and watched while Toph said to us "This is where you seeing people are at a disadvantage, everyone guesses wrong because the dealer moves the rock at the last minute but I can feel it with my earth bending." She grinned. I watched as the dealer stopped shuffling them. The man chose the one in the middle, but the stone wasn't there. He gasped and started crying before being led away by his friends. The dealer looked at us and looked at Toph's eyes, he grinned.

"You there? Wanna play a friendly game?"the dealer asked.

"How could I possible play? I'm blind." Toph said, she waved her hands in front of her eyes.

"You don't have to see to be lucky." The dealer said. Toph went down onto her knees to get to the right level and shuffled forward, she actually acted like a helpless blind girl. She put her hands on the cups and felt them before coming back to her space. She took the silver piece out of her pocket and handed it to the dealer. The dealer lifted up the cups, showing the stone was under the middle cup. He put the cups back down and shuffled them around. He stopped and put them into a straight line. Toph pointed to the one on the left, he lifted it up to reveal the stone.

"Flameo Toph." Aang said.

"Wow, fancy guessing." The dealer said, he gave us two silver pieces. "You're amazing at this, would you like to make the game a little more interesting?" the dealer asked. He shuffled coins skilfully around his fingertips.

"More interesting? How?" Toph asked innocently.

"Well, let's say you toss in your friend's fine sword there, then I'll put up twenty silver pieces against it and that's more interesting." The dealer said, Toph took Sokka's space sword.

"I'll do it for forty silver pieces." Toph said.

"Forty sliver pieces it is." The dealer smirked; he dropped some more coins in the bag of money. I sat at the side and watched. He lifted the cups up to show where the stone was and then shuffled them around, I saw him flick up one of the cups, and the stone flew out of it and up his sleeve. I saw Toph's pull the stone with her fist, back under the cup; none of the cups would have a stone under them if she hadn't done that. Toph pointed to the middle cup. The dealer went down to pick up the cup "Sorry little lady but-"he gasped as he saw the stone. "Huh?" he asked, he lent down to it.

"I won!" Toph exclaimed, Sokka took his sword and she grabbed the bag of money and we ran away. We laughed and bought some food before walking back to camp and putting the baskets in front of Katara, laughing still.

"Where did you guys get the money to buy all this stuff?" Katara asked.

"Toph got us money." Aang said "She scammed one of the guys in town who move those cups around all sneaky like." He took a bite out of an apple. Katara scowled.

"She used earth bending to win the game!" Sokka said "Classic!"

"Ah, so she cheated." Katara said.

"Hey, I only cheated because he was cheating; I cheated a cheater, what's wrong with that?" Toph asked.

"I'm just saying, this isn't something we should make a habit of doing." Katara said.

"Why? Because it's fun, and you hate fun?" Toph asked.

"I don't hate fun!" Katara said nervously. She grabbed Momo and put him on her head "See? Fun!"

"Katara, I'll personally make you an avatar promise that we won't make a habit of doing these scams." Aang bowed.

Aang played with the coins between his fingers and betted on Toph. We had been doing this all day. In the afternoon we went back for two reasons, one, because we were bored, two, because we had too much money to carry. "Guys, I think these scams have gone far enough." Katara said "If you keep doing them something bad is gonna happen."

"Can you for once stop being such a sourpuss and just lighten up?" Toph asked, she tossed Katara a gold piece.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you think I should be more like you? Like some wild child?" Katara asked angrily, she chucked the money onto the ground.

"Yeah, maybe, maybe then you'll see how great we have it, I mean look at us! We're travelling around the world, making easy money, having fun, with no parents to tell us what to do." Toph said.

"Ahhhhh, I see, you're acting like this because of your parents." Katara guessed.

"Whatever." Toph shrugged.

"They were controlling over you so you ran away and now you act like your parents don't exist, you act like you hate them but you don't, you just feel guilty." Katara explained.

"I do hate them." Toph said angrily.

"I don't think so, Hotaru doesn't even hate both of her parents, I think you miss your parents." Katara said sympathetically "But you just don't want to deal with that so instead you act like this crazy person.

"Look!" Toph said "I ran away to help Aang." She argued.

"You know what, it doesn't matter, these scams put us all at risk and we don't need that, we've already got some third eyed freak after us." Katara said.

"Speaking of that third eyed freak, I think I've come up with a name for him, what do you think of…Sparky sparky boom man!" Sokka said. We all looked at him blankly "Just think about it." Sokka said.

"We have enough money, you need to stop this!" Katara demanded.

"I'll stop when I wanna stop and not when you tell me!" Toph said. She grabbed a bag of money off of the floor and stormed off. She made an earth tent around herself.

"Speaking of money, I'm off to spend some, see you guys later." Sokka waved, he walked off. For the next few hours I was cooking a meal for myself and Toph. I sat down next to her and we started eating our meal while she counted her gold bars.

"Toph, you're never gonna believe what I just found." Sokka said, he came back with a rolled up sheet of paper and a messenger hawk?! He unfurled the piece of paper in front of her.

"Well it sounds like a piece of paper but I'm guessing you're referring to what's on the paper?" Toph said.

"It's a wanted poster of you!" Sokka said, he shook it around "They've nicknamed you 'The Runaway.'." Sokka said.

"A wanted poster! That's so great!" Toph said "The runaway…I love my new nickname! Is there a picture of me, does it look good?" she asked. I stood up and looked at the poster with Sokka, it was a cartoon drawing of Toph but the drawing had razor sharp teeth and angry eyes.

"Well yeah actually." Sokka said.

"It does look pretty good." I nodded.

"But Toph, you're missing the point, maybe Katara was right, these scams are drawing too much attention to us." Sokka said.

"Don't be such a worry wart like your sister, think of it this way, now you have plenty of money to help with the invasion plan." Toph said.

"Well that is true; I had this idea of making armour for Oppa and Kaida." Sokka said. Toph gave Sokka some gold pieces.

"Here's some extra so you can buy a nice map of the fire nation." Toph said. She then handed him the bag and said "You know what, make it an atlas!"

"I do like expensive atlases." Sokka said.

"Of course you do and that's why this wanted poster is gonna stay our little secret." Toph said. She walked away, Sokka looked at me with a raised eyebrow, I shrugged and went back to my meal. I saw Katara and Aang walked over to Sokka.

"Sokka? Tell me you didn't buy a bird." Katara said.

"Not just a bird, a messenger bird, now we can send messages all over the world, even to Grangran." Sokka said excitedly.

"Wow, how does it work?" Aang asked.

"Uh, I never actually thought about that. Hawky, Grangran, South Pole!" Sokka commanded. The hawk shook its head. "I think he gets it." Sokka said. I saw Momo jump up and chase the bird around Sokka's head. "Hawky! Make nice! Bad Hawky!" Sokka yelled at them. Next I scrubbed Kaida down, he white scales were starting to go brown from loads of mud. I saw Toph and Sokka walk back into camp.

"Well, look who decided to join us." Katara said angrily "Where have you two been? Off scamming again?"

"Yes, we were." Toph said ignorantly.

"And I suppose you think what you're doing is wrong at all?" Katara asked.

"No I don't." Toph shrugged.

"Really?" Katara asked.

"Yes, really." Toph said.

"Well then, what's this?!" Katara asked, she pulled out some paper.

"I don't know! Seriously! What is with you people?! I'm blind!" Toph yelled.

"It's a wanted poster of you, the runaway, is that what you're called now?" Katara asked "Are you proud of this?!"  
>"Where did you get that?!" Toph asked.<p>

"It's doesn't matter where I got it, the fact is-" Katara started.

"You went through my stuff!" Toph accused "You had no right."

"Your stuff was messy and I was just straightening up and I happened to stumble across it." Katara said.

"That's a lie, you're lying Katara." Toph said.

"Fine, I'm lying, but you've been so out of control lately, I knew something was up, I knew you were hiding something and you were!" Katara said. Toph snatched the poster off of Katara and threw it to the ground before walking away. "Don't you walk away from me while I'm talking to you!"

"Oh really, mum, what are you gonna do? Send me to my room?" Toph asked mockingly.

"I wish I could." Katara said.

"Well you can't because you're not their mum!" Toph argued, she pointed over to Sokka, Aang and I.

"I never said I was." Katara said.

"No, but you certainly act like it." Toph said "You think it's your job to boss everyone around but it's not, you're just a regular kid like the rest of us so stop acting like you can tell me what to do!" Toph yelled "I can do whatever I want!"

"I don't act that way." Katara defended weakly. "Sokka, do I act motherly?!" she demanded.

"Hey, I'm staying out of this one." Sokka said, she looked to me.

"Don't look at me." I said.

"What do you think Aang, do I act like a mum?" she asked Aang.

Aang rubbed his eye and said tiredly "Well, I-"

"STOP RUBBING YOUR EYE AND SPEAK CLEARLY WHEN YOU TALK!" she said.

"Yes mam!" Aang said quickly.

"I can't be around you right now." Toph said, she walked away.

"Well I can't be around you!" Katara yelled, she stormed off in the opposite direction. The hawk tweeted.

"I know Hawky, why can't they just get along?" Sokka asked. We sat there for ages in silence, trying to figure out what to do. Suddenly Sokka said "Hey Aang, you wanna test out my messenger hawk with me, I've got an idea."

"Sure." Aang nodded.

"I'm gonna send a note to Katara and say it's form Toph who wants to apologise then everyone will be friends again." Sokka proposed. I giggled "What?!" he asked angrily.

"Nothing, go ahead with your great plan." I said, I saw a massive hole in his plan.

"Well I'm impressed with his idea." Aang said.

"Eh, it's a gift." Sokka shrugged. He wrote a letter and read it out loud as he wrote "Dear Katara, sorry for everything, your friend Toph." He rolled up the paper and put it into the cylinder on the hawks back. The hawk flew to Katara; she took the note out and read it.

"I know this is from you Sokka! Toph can't write!" Katara yelled, she ripped up the note. "Ugh, you're all driving me crazy!" she stormed off.

"I can't believe we forgot Toph can't write." Aang said sadly.

"I remembered!" I chirped, they both scowled at me, I grinned.

"Yup, we're idiots." Sokka added.

"I guess plan B is we send a note to Toph and say it's from Katara." Aang suggested.

"I think we're gonna run into a similar problem." Sokka said. I leant forward and cuffed Aang round the ear. Sokka walked over to Toph and asked to chat with her, I wanted to go so I followed them, I sat next to them on the edge of the cliff over the sea.

"So let me guess, you brought me out here to tell me about how your sister isn't as annoying as I made her out to be?" Toph asked.

"Nah, she's pretty much a pain." Sokka said "She's always gotta be right about everything, and she gets all bossy, and involved, and in your business."

"Yeah, I don't know how you can deal with it." Toph said.

"Actually, in a way, I rely on it." Sokka said.

"I don't understand." Toph asked.

"When our mum died, that was the hardest time in my life, our family was a mess, but Katara, she had so much strength, she stepped up and took on so much responsibility, she helped fill the void that was left by our mum." Sokka explained.

"I guess I never thought about that." Toph said.

"I'm gonna tell you two something crazy, I never told anyone else before, but honestly, I'm not sure I can remember what my mother looked like. It really seems like my whole life, Katara's been the one looking out for me. She's always been the one that's there, and now, when I try to remember my mum, Katara's is the only face I can picture." Sokka said.

"The truth is, sometimes Katara does act motherly but that's not always a bad thing, she's compassionate and kind and she actually cares about me, you know, the real me." Toph said, she wiped a tear away from her face and carried on "That's more than my own mum." She looked at Sokka and punched his shoulder hard "Don't you ever tell her I said any of this!" she said angrily.

"Hey, my lips are sealed." Sokka said, he looked over at me and said "Your turn, now you talk about your mum, I hardly know anything about her."

"Fine, when I was young Mai would watch Azula and Ty Lee playing together and Zuko would sit with mum, I sat at the side, watching and never really feeling like I belonged. Mum had Zuko as a favourite and dad had Azula, I was cast aside, never really anyone's favourite. When my mum left it broke me, when Zuko was banished you might as well have killed me, I loved them, and I was left with miss blue fire freak and my dad! I ran away from my problems instead of facing them. All I can remember about my mum is those quiet evenings on Ember Island, watching the waves and counting the stars; I remember her sweet voice and soft eyes. When I found you guys you seemed like family, you gave me…hope, Katara takes care of me _like _a mother, but she's more than that, she's my sister now." I said sadly, tears were flowing freely by now. I punched Sokka's other shoulder "No repeating this!" I said.  
>"Right." He nodded. We went back to camp, I sat down against Kaida. Katara was stroking Momo. Katara walked over to Toph.<p>

"Uh, hi Toph, um, I wanna-"Katara started.

"Katara stop, you don't need to apologise, I was the one being stupid, these scams are out of control and I'm done with them." Toph said.

"Actually, I wasn't going to apologise, I was gonna say, I wanna pull a scam with you." Katara said. I did a spit take with the water I was eating, Sokka and Aang fell over.

"What?!" Toph exclaimed "You wanna pull a scam?!"

"Not just any scam, the ultimate scam!" Katara said "What do ya say Toph? Just me and you, one last go, you in?"

"You know I'm in!" Toph said "Now, what's this idea of yours?" Both Katara and Toph walked away. I looked at the other two, they were on the floor in shock.

"The plan is simple, this wanted poster says you're worth a lot of money, ten times more than you've made in all your scams, so I'm gonna turn you in and collect the reward, then you metal bend yourself out of jail and we're on our way!" Katara said. They discussed the details between themselves while I fiddled with my space bracelet, making it into different shapes before putting it where I normally kept it, around my ankle. Toph left her space bracelet at camp in case the people who caught her took it. At about lunch they left to go and pull their scam.

Quite a while after they left Aang started pacing; they should be back by now. "Do you think this scam of theirs should be taking this long?" Aang asked.

"I was just wondering the same thing." Sokka said.

"Same here." I added.

"We better check it out." Sokka said. I nodded and got up. I left Patch sitting on Kaida's head, one of his favourite spots. Sokka put his hawk down on a log. Momo was next to the hawk, not a good sign; they hated each other "You two behave." Sokka said "Oppa's in charge." We left, Momo hissed at the hawk and the hawk squawked at Momo. Oppa roared at them and they stopped, I laughed and kept going. We walked to the town and through the streets, but for some reason nobody was walking around, it was completely empty.

"Where do you think they'd be?" I asked.

"Where do you think anyone is?" Aang asked. We walked to the plaza and walked around the giant Ozai statue. Suddenly I heard something behind me. "WATCH OUT!" Aang yelled. He dragged Sokka behind the statue; I brought up an earth dome around me. I waited until the explosion cleared before I ran behind the statue with Aang and Sokka. "It's Sparky Sparky Boom Man." Aang said.

"Oh really?" I asked sarcastically.

"You know, I'm starting to think that name doesn't fit." Sokka said. I looked up and saw the metal man on top of the roof; he jumped down to the floor. The man took another deep breath in and made an explosion near us, we were blown away. We got up and ran through the plaza and down a side street, there was an explosion behind us again, we were blown forward. I saw a wooden cart and grabbed it; I turned it on its side like a shield. We got behind it in defence. "This guy is too good; he shoots fire from his brain!" Sokka said.

"We should split up; he can't chase all three of us." Aang said. I nodded and got ready to run. The metal man came forward out of the smoke, we ran, I ran straight away from him, Aang and Sokka went to the sides. He blew up the wooden cart; I ran behind a corner of the street and kept running. I heard more and more explosions from another direction, then I heard Aang yelling, I looked to the statue in the middle of town and gasped, Aang had splatted onto it, he peeled off and fell to the floor, I started running in that direction. When I got there I saw Katara and Toph! Katara kicked some water onto the guys head and froze it. The man stumbled to the side, Aang was on the floor.

"Aang, get up!" Katara said, she ran over to him and pulled him to his feet.

"Let's get outta here!" Toph said, I nodded and we ran. The man smashed the ice around his head; he took a deep breath in, Toph quickly kicked up a boulder and punched it towards the man, he blew it up, I looked around and saw a small pebble hit the third eye in the middle of his head, he grunted and fell backwards a few steps, he growled and looked at us, he took a deep breath in and prepared to fire. He fired but small sparks appeared around him and the explosion backfired. He smashed into a wall of a house and slid to the floor. We kept running.

"Hey, I got it, the perfect name for that guy, Combustion Man." Sokka said.

"Good job Sokka, now let's get outta here before Combustion Man catches us!" Toph said.

"See, it fits so well." Sokka said happily. We went back to camp and packed our stuff before leaving. We stopped in the middle of a canyon, where a river used to be. It was dark when we did get there. When we landed Sokka stretched and yawned "I'm exhausted." He sighed "Hawky, how about you buddy?" Hawky chirped quietly. "Yeah, you're such a lazy little bird." Sokka said, he scratched Hawky's head.

"Katara, I need your help." Toph said.

"What is it Toph?" Katara asked.

"I need you to write some things down for me." Toph asked "I wanna send a letter to my parents."

"I'll be happy to help." Katara smiled. She wrote down what Toph said and put the letter in the cylinder on Hawky's back, Hawky flew away.

"Hey? Where'd Hawky go?" Sokka asked. I giggled and went to sleep.


	43. Chapter 43

We were in the middle of a forest, in the dark, around a campfire, telling scary stories. "Suddenly they hear something down the hall in the dark, ooooh, it came into the torchlight, and they knew the blade of Wing Fan was haunted!" Sokka finished his story, I yawned.

"I think I like the man with a sword for a hand better." Aang sighed.

"Water Tribe slumber parties must stink." Toph said.

"No wait, I've got one, and this is a true Southern Water Tribe story." Katara said.

"Is this one of those a friend of my cousin knew some guy that this happened to stories?" Sokka asked.

"No. It happened to mum." Katara said, we all looked at her seriously.

"One winter when mum was a girl a snowstorm buried the whole village for weeks, a month later mum realised she hadn't seen her friend Mimi since the storm so mum and some others went to check on Mimi's family, when they got there, no one was home, just a fire flickering in the fire place, while the men went out to search mum stayed in the house. When she was alone she heard a voice, 'it's so cold, and I can't get warm'." Katara said, Sokka backed away a little. "Mum turned and saw Mimi standing by the fire, she was blue like she was frozen, mum ran outside for help but when everyone came back Mimi was gone." Katara said, I ducked down into Patch's fur, Aang hid behind Momo, Sokka hid behind a tree branch and Toph just sat there.

"Where'd she go?" Sokka asked.

"No one knows, Mimi's house stands empty to this day but sometimes people see smoke coming up from the chimney, like little Mimi is still trying to get warm." Katara said solemnly. Suddenly Toph gasped.

"Wait! Guys, did you hear that?!" Toph asked. Sokka, Aang, Katara and I all whimpered and hugged each other. "I hear people under the mountain and they're screaming." Toph said.

"Pfff, nice try." Sokka said.

"No, I'm serious, I hear something." Toph said.

"You're probably just jumpy from the ghost story." Katara suggested.

"It just stopped." Toph said confusedly.

"Alright, now I'm getting scared." Aang said.

"Y-yeah." I stuttered.

"Hello children." I heard a voice say, I didn't recognise it, we all screamed and hugged Toph. I saw an old woman in between the trees. "Sorry to scare you, my name is Hama. You children shouldn't be out in the forest by yourselves at night. I have an inn nearby, why don't you come back there for some spice tea and warm beds." Hama asked.

"Yes please." Sokka said. Hama smiled and nodded, she led the way through the forest, Kaida stayed invisible. We were led to the inn and welcomed; we sat at the table and were poured some spiced tea.

"Thanks for letting us stay here tonight, you have a lovely inn." Katara said.

"Aren't you sweet? You know, you should be careful, people have been disappearing in those woods you were camping in." Hama said.

"What do you mean disappearing?" Sokka asked.

"When the moon is full people walk in, and they don't come out…who wants more tea?" Hama asked, we all looked at her blankly. "Don't worry, you'll all be completely safe here, why don't I show you to your rooms and you can get a good night's rest?" Hama asked. We all nodded happily, Aang had his own room and so did Sokka and Katara but Toph and I, we were pretty much terrified so we shared a room; I had a blanket on the floor while she slept on the small bed. It was so creepy, the house creaked and I could hear cat owls outside as well. I finally did get to sleep though, I don't know how but I did. In the morning I shot awake straight away, tied my hair into a long braid to the side and got changed. My clothes were some baggy dark red three quarter trousers with about a million pockets, a loose red crop top and a dark red jumped with a pocket at the front, which Patch normally stayed in. I had to wear the jumper to hide my scar. I put on Oma's necklace and made sure I still had the space bracelet around my ankle, I never took that off. Toph woke up and got herself ready as well. Soon after we were done Katara knocked at the door.

"We're going shopping now." She said. I groaned, I just wanted to stay inside and relax but no. I opened the door and we went downstairs where we saw the others.

Sokka was bored and carrying three baskets, both Toph and I were holding big pots on our heads and Aang was holding a few bags of food as well. Katara and Hama bought a small basket of food and walked away from the old man tending the stall, the old man waved flirtatiously at Hama, ugh, old people love. As we walked past a stall I heard a man talking "You won't have any ash bananas until next week?" He asked.

"Well, I have to send the boy to Hing Wha Island to get them and it's a two day trip." The shopkeeper said.

"Oh right, tomorrow's the full moon." The man said.

"Exactly, I can't lose _another _delivery boy in the woods." The shopkeeper said.

"People disappearing in the woods, weird stuff during full moons, this just reeks of spirit world shenanigans." Sokka said.

"I bet if we take a little walk around town we'll find out what these people did to the environment to make the spirits mad." Aang said.

"And then you can sew up this little mystery lickedy split avatar style." Sokka said.

"Please tell me you didn't just say _lickedy split_?" I asked.

"Helping people, that's what I do." Aang said smugly, I rolled my eyes. Katara and Hama stopped.

"Why don't you all take those things back to the inn, I just have to run a couple more errands, I'll be back in a little while." Hama said to us.

"This is a mysterious little town you have here." Sokka said.

"A mysterious town for mysterious children." Hama said creepily before walking away. Back at the inn we put the basket down on the table.

"That Hama seems a little strange, like she knows something." Sokka assumed "Or she's hiding something."

"That's ridiculous, she's a nice woman who took us in and gave us a place to stay." Katara said "She kind of reminds me of Grangran."

"But what did she mean by that comment 'mysterious children'?" Sokka asked.

"Gee, I don't know, maybe because she found five strange kids camping in the woods at night, isn't that a little mysterious?" Katara asked, she sounded a little angry.

"I'm gonna take a look around." Sokka said, he walked away. I followed him through the hallways and up the stairs.

"Sokka! Sokka! What are you doing, you can't just snoop around someone's house!" Katara said.

"Sneaking." I corrected.

"It'll be fine." Sokka said, he looked in one room, nothing.

"She'll be home any moment." Aang warned.

"Sokka, you're gonna get us all in trouble and this is just plain rude!" Katara said. Sokka found a cupboard in the wall, he tugged on the handles, it didn't budge.

"I'm not finished yet." Sokka stated firmly. He pulled on the handles again "Come on." He said frustratingly, suddenly the cupboard doors swung open and loads of wooden dummies hung out. Sokka fell against the wall and pulled his sword out.

"Ok, that's pretty creepy." I said.

"So she's got a hobby, there's nothing weird about that. Sokka, you've looked enough." Katara said, she put the dummies back into the cupboard and closed the doors. "Hama will be back soon." She warned, Sokka walked upstairs into the attic and saw a door, he tugged on the handle.

"Just an ordinary puppet loving inn-keeper huh?" Sokka asked "Then why does she have a locked door up here?"

"Probably to keep people like you from snooping through her stuff!" Katara said.

"Sneaking." I corrected.

"We'll see." Sokka said, he looked through the keyhole. "It's empty except for a little chest." He informed us.

"Whoa, maybe it's treasure!" Toph hoped. Sokka grinned but the rest of her looked at her as if to say 'really?'.

"Sokka, what are you doing?!" Katara asked angrily, he had taken his sword out and was wiggling it around in the lock. "You're breaking into a private room!"

"I have to see what's in there." Sokka said. Suddenly he managed to push the door open. We all walked into the empty room.

"We shouldn't be doing this." Aang said.

"Man up." I scoffed. Sokka tried opening the box but it didn't work.

"I think it needs a key." He said.

"Ooh, hand it over." Toph said. She took off her space bracelet and squished it into a key, she put it into the lock and tried to open it.

"Come on come on!" Sokka said impatiently.

"This isn't as easy as it looks." Toph said.

"Guys, I don't know about this." Aang said.

"This is crazy, I'm leaving!" Katara said.

"Suit yourself, do it Toph." Sokka said. Toph finally managed to unlock the chest with a small click, she grinned triumphantly. We all huddled around the small chest in anticipation.

"I'll tell you what's in the box." I heard Hama say, Sokka, Aang and Katara screamed in fear. We spun around and Sokka hid the box behind his back. Hama was standing in the doorway. We all looked down at the floor shamefully. Sokka handed the box to her. She reached in and took out the item, she held it up for us to see, it was…a comb?

"An old comb?!" Sokka moaned.

"It's my greatest treasure; it's the last thing I own from growing up in the Southern Water Tribe." Hama said, I gasped, what?!

"You're from the Southern Water Tribe?" Katara asked.

"Just like you." Hama smiled.

"How did you know?!" Katara asked.

"I heard you talking around your campfire." Hama said.

"But why didn't you tell us?" Sokka asked.

"I wanted to surprise you, I bought all this food today so I could fix you a big water tribe dinner, of course I can't get all the ingredients I need here but ocean cumquats are a lot like sea prunes if you stew them long enough." Hama said, Aang and I gagged.

"Great." Aang said.

"I knew I felt a bond with you right away." Katara said.

"And I knew you were keeping a secret so I guess we're both right!" Sokka said smugly. Katara punched his shoulder. "But I'm sorry we were sneaking around." He said.

"Snooping." I corrected.

"Apology accepted." Hama smiled. "Now let's get cooking." She said, she gestured us downstairs. Aang and I went to the shed out back to feed Kaida, Oppa, Momo and Patch. I had an orange for Patch, his favourite, and some chicken for Kaida, her favourite. Aang shared a big cabbage between Oppa and Momo. We walked back to the house where there was a lot of water tribe food.

"I'd stay clear of the sea prunes." Aang whispered to Toph.

"I thought they were ocean cumquats?" Toph asked.

"Close enough." Aang said.

"You know what, just stay clear of you know…all of it." I whispered.

"Who wants fry flavoured soup?" Hama asked. We all put our hands up and grabbed some bowls. Hama water bended the right amount into all of our bowls.

"You're a water bender!" Katara exclaimed "I've never met another water bender from our tribe."

"That's because the fire nation wiped them all out. I was the last one." Hama said painfully.

"How did you end up out here?" Sokka asked.

"I was stolen from my home." Hama said "It was over 60 years ago when the raid started. I saw the dreaded black snow, and then the fire navy; they fired at our village before storming it, all of our water benders fought back, eventually we were taken away in nets. They came again and again, each time rounding up more of our water benders and taking them captive, we did our best to hold them off but our numbers dwindled as the raids continued, finally I too was captured. I was led away in chains, the last water bender of the Southern Water Tribe." Hama said, she was close to tears and her shoulders were shaking. Katara walked over to her and put her arms around Hama "They put us in terrible prisons in the fire nation; I was the only one who managed to escape." Hama said.

"How did you get away and why did you stay in the fire nation?" Sokka asked.

"I'm sorry, it's too painful to talk about any more." Hama said.

"We completely understand, we lost our mother in a raid." Katara said.

"Oh you poor things." Hama said, we all looked down sadly, bringing back past memories.

"I can't tell you what it means to meet you, it's an honour, you're a hero." Katara smiled.

"I never thought I'd meet another Southern water bender, I'd like to teach you what I know so you can carry on the Southern tradition when I'm gone." Hama said.

"Yes! Yes of course! To learn about my heritage, it would mean everything to me." Katara said excitedly, she bowed thankfully to Hama. Hama and Katara went out while the rest of us stayed at the inn, being bored. We ended up deciding to go out and see about any spirits.

We soon got to the edge of the cliff where Aang looked out on the amazing river and forest and said "This has got to be the nicest natural setting in the fire nation, I don't see anything that would make a spirit mad around here."

"Maybe the moon spirit just turned mean?" Toph asked.

"THE MOON SPIRITIS A GENTLE, LOVING LADY, SHE RULES THE SKY WITH COMPASSION!" Sokka yelled "And…lunar goodness!" He added. I raised an eyebrow. Aang saw someone walk past us and ran over to the man.

"Excuse me sir, can you tell us anything about the spirit that's been stealing people?" Aang asked.

"Only one man ever saw it an lived and that's Old Man Ding." The man said.

"Where does Old Man Ding live?" Toph asked. We were told where Ding lived, but Ding was out so we relaxed at the inn for a while, we found Ding outside when it got dark. He was about to hit a nail with a hammer.

"Old Man Ding?" I asked. He slammed the hammer down, not on the nail, but on his thumb.

"God damn blammit, what, can't you see I'm busy?!" Ding yelled. I realised he was boarding up his windows. "Got a full moon rising and why does everyone call me that? I'm not that old." Ding said, he bent down to pick up a plank of wood but couldn't. "Well, you gonna help?" Ding asked, Aang walked over and helped. "Not ready to get snapped up by some moon monster yet at least." Ding said.

"We wanted to ask you about that." Sokka said, he picked up the hammer while Aang and Ding held the plank.

"Did you get a good look at the spirit that took you?" I asked.

"Didn't see no spirit, just felt something come over me like I was possessed, forced me to start walking towards the mountain." Ding said, he pointed over at the mountain. "I tried to fight it but I couldn't control my own limbs, it just about had me into a cave up there, I looked up at the moon for what I thought would be my last glimpse of light." Ding said, I had a feeling he told this story a lot. Sokka was trembling, I punched his shoulder. "Then the sun started to rise and I got control of myself again, I just hightailed it away from that mountain as quick as I could!" Ding said.

"Why would a spirit want to take people to a mountain?" Sokka asked.

"Oh no!" Toph said, Aang and Sokka jumped back, I punched them both. "I did hear people screaming under the mountain, the missing villagers must still be there." Toph said. I looked at the mountain and chewed my lip, I'm not the _biggest _fan of big scary creepy mountains holding stolen villagers and maybe an angry spirit? Nonetheless we ran as fast as we could to the mountain. "I can hear them, they're this way." Toph said. We carried on running. We ran to the mountain where we saw a cave, it looked like it had been hollowed out. "This is the place." Toph said.

"I can't see anything down there." Sokka said. I lit a flame above the palm of my hand and gestured for them to go down, we jumped down the steep tunnel and finally got to a metal door with some torches either side, I extinguished my flame. Toph stamped on the floor and metal bended the door away from the wall. We walked through and saw a room full of sad looking villagers in shackles and chains.

"We're saved!" a man said.

"I didn't know that spirits made prisons like this." Aang said. Toph slid her bracelet off the top of her arm and I got mine off of my ankle, we formed them into keys and got to work freeing the villagers.

"Who brought you here?" I asked.

"It was no spirit." A woman said.

"It was a witch." A man said.

"A witch? What do you mean?" Sokka asked.

"She seems like a normal old woman but she controls people like some dark puppet master." A woman said.

"Hama!" Sokka growled.

"Yes, the innkeeper." Someone said.

"I knew there was something creepy about her!" Sokka said.

"We have to stop Hama!" Aang said.

"We'll get these people outta here." Toph said, gesturing to her and me. I nodded in agreement.

"Go!" I said, they ran out the door and away. Toph and I carried on releasing the prisoners with our key shaped space bracelets. We ran through the forest and to where the others were, I saw Aang and Sokka watching Hama and Katara, Katara looked like she was bending but there was no water around, I looked at Hama, she was twitching, she was pulled down to the floor in a rigid kind of way, I looked from Katara to Hama and back again, Katara was bending Hama's blood? Blood bending? I quickly ran over to Hama and chi blocked her, Katara stopped and hand cuffs were put around Hama's wrists while she was defenceless.

"You're going to be locked away forever." A villager said to her, they led Hama away.

"My work is done, congratulations Katara, you're a blood bender." Hama said darkly, she cackled and was marched away in chains. Katara put her hand up to her mouth and tears were streaming down her cheeks, Katara sat down and wailed in front of the full moon, under its almighty glow.


	44. Chapter 44

We had just arrived at the coast of a very small, island, sheep wandered around and it was dark, bushes dotted the side and the land was very flat, there were a few trees and the island was raised above the water by about 10 metres, the edge of the cliff was crescent shape, there were no steps but a beach down below. Sokka looked around and said confidently "This is it, the official rendezvous point of the invasion force."  
>"How did you pick this place?" Toph asked.<p>

"Before we split up my dad and I found this island on a map, it's uninhabited, and the beach would make a perfect place for a harbour, it's surrounded by a cliff, it seemed like a perfect place." Sokka said.

"Nice choice Sokka, and we're here four days ahead of schedule." Katara said. I grabbed my blanket and wrapped it around myself. I led against Kaida and yawned.

"WAIT! FOUR DAYS?!" Aang asked "The invasion's in four days?! Ah!" he said. Sokka yawned and led down.

"Ahhhhh, whatever, that's like four days from now." Sokka said.

"Wow, how'd you figure that one out?" I asked sarcastically, Toph and Katara giggled.

"Let's just calm down and-"Sokka started to say, but he fell down to his pillow and went to sleep, snoring like an oaf.

"Sokka's got the right idea Aang, we're here, we're ready, the best thing we can do now is get plenty of rest." Katara said, she led down. Toph laid out her sleeping bag and also led down.

"I guess." Aang said, he sounded unsure; he led down on the grass. I cuddled into Kaida and Patch slept on Kaida's head as well. I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

In the morning I heard banging, I opened my eyes and squinted in the sunlight, I saw Aang punching a tree. I groaned groggily, I wanted to go back to sleep! Katara looked at us in confusion, we all shrugged. She got up and walked over to him. "Hey, how long have you been up?" She asked him.

"A couple of hours, I've got a lot more skills to refine if I'm gonna fight Ozai." Aang said, he was panting and sweating.

"You know there is such a thing as over training." Katara said, Aang punched the tree one more time, vibration ran through his arm, he shivered and fell onto his back. Then all the leaves on the tree fell off and landed on him. He shot up and started circling Katara.

"You don't get it do you?! My form is bad, I'm sloppy, and I still don't know any fire bending, not even the basics!" he said, his eye was twitching. I got up and stretched.

"That's okay Aang; the eclipse will block all fire bending anyway so you don't need to know any." I said.

"Plus it's a stupid element." Sokka added. I punched him as hard as I could; he yelped in pain and fell backwards.

"Okay, well I still have to work on everything else; I better spend the whole day training." Aang said, he bowed quickly to all of us. He jumped on an air scooter and rode away. I trained in my bending for about an hour at a time every now and then through the day until it got dark. I grabbed my blanket and curled up with my animals like I normally do. I saw Aang stumbled to where we were, he rubbed his eyes, stretched and fell to the floor. "Goodnight Katara, goodnight Sokka, goodnight Toph, goodnight Hotaru, goodnight Kaida, goodnight Patch, goodnight Momo, goodnight Oppa, goodnight Oppa and Momo." He said.

"JUST GO TO SLEEP ALREADY!" Toph yelled at him. He nodded and closed his eyes and went to sleep, I did the same thing. I slept through the night peacefully until morning when I was woken up.

"SOKKA GET UP! I NEED TO KNOW WHAT DAY IT IS!" Aang yelled, I frowned and opened my eyes.

"WHAT?! Who's talking?!" Sokka yelled, he shot up with his sword but hit his head on a rock. "Ow." He grumbled and fell over.

"Relax, it's still two days before the invasion." Toph said.

"Sokka, you've gotta get up and do your rock climbing exercise." Aang said quickly.

"What?" Sokka asked.

"In one of my dreams you were running from fire nation soldiers trying to climb this cliff but you were too slow and they got you!" Aang explained.

"But that was just a dream, I'm a great climber." Sokka said angrily.

"Then climb that cliff!" Aang commanded "Climb it fast!" he yelled. Sokka looked at the cliff, it was quite tall. He raised an eyebrow and pointed to himself, then the cliff, Aang nodded, Sokka grumbled and then started to climb the cliff.

"Stupid avatar, stupid cliff, stupid dream, I can climb fast!" Sokka mumbled to himself. Toph picked up a water bottle and took a drink.

"DON'T DRINK THAT!" Aang yelled, Sokka fell off the cliff and Toph did a spit take all over Katara and I. Katara used water bending to clean us off.

"Why?! Is it poison?!" Toph asked.

"In my dream we were right in the middle of the invasion and you had to stop to use the bathroom! We died because of your tiny bladder!" Aang said.

"You're not allowed to cut your hair!" Aang said to me. I had been thinking about cutting it, it was almost past my waste.

"Why?" I asked.

"In one of my dreams those fire nation lizard things tracked you down and then ate you!" Aang yelled, I frowned.

"And you need to start wearing your hair up, in my dream your hair got caught in a train and-" Aang started to say.

"AANG! I know you're just trying to help but you really need to get a grip, you're unravelling." Katara said. He took a deep breath in and let it out.

"You're right, I'm losing my mind." Aang said. I heard girly screaming and looked up, Sokka slid down the cliff, I winced, that has gotta hurt! When we were eating lunch Aang went into another break down "It's like every time I think about how stressed I am I just end up more stressed." Aang said, he was twiddling his thumbs and fingers and was twitching. "I'm like a big glowing snow ball of nerves!" he said.

"Of course you are, that's because you've gotta fight the fire lord, the badest man on the plant and you better win or we're all done for." Sokka said nonchalantly.

"Sokka, you're not helping." Katara scolded.

"What? It's true, that's the deal, he knows it." Sokka said. Katara looked at me; I nodded, stood up and punched Sokka's shoulder before sitting back down. Aang was shivering and twitching.

"You know what; I've got just the thing." Katara said, she took Aang away to do yoga to relieve stress. It didn't work so Sokka tried to get him to talk out the stress, that didn't work, Toph gave him a back pounding and that didn't work, she tried to talk him into acupuncture but he ran away, by then it was the end of the day so I made a nice meal for Aang and the rest of us. When it was dark I curled up in my blanket and snuggled with my animals and closed my eyes.

"Thanks for everything guys." Aang thanked.

"So, do you feel less stressed?" Katara asked.

"Ready for a good night's sleep?" I mumbled.

"Uh, I kinda think I sorta might slightly feel a little better." Aang said. "Maybe." He added.

"Then our work here is done." Sokka said, I heard him yawn and lie down. I heard the others yawn as well. I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

Suddenly in the middle of the night I heard Aang yelling. I looked up and saw him awake and panting. "What happened Aang?" Katara asked.

"It's the nightmares, they just get worse and worse." Aang said.

"Looks like it's time for another therapy session." Sokka said, he spun around with his moustache and beard on.

"No that won't help, nothing helps, there's only one thing I can do, I'm gonna stay awake straight through the invasion." Aang twitched. Sokka's beard and moustache fell off. I shrugged and went back to sleep.

In the morning Aang was pacing from side to side "Invasion, invasion, all aboard for the invasion." He mumbled

"You don't look so good." Katara said worriedly.

"You sure you can't just lie down for a little nap?" I asked, I was also getting worried about Aang.

"I told you, I can't go back to sleep." Aang said.

"Aang, staying up all night can't be good for you." Katara said.

"Actually staying up all night has given me some time to think." Aang said, damn, was he gonna talk about his feelings? I'm out! I shuffled away from Katara and Aang. At about midday I was helping Sokka make the armour for Oppa and Kaida, he made it and I heated up the metal with fire bending so he could make the armour. I looked up and saw Aang attacking a small tree with a picture of the fire lord on it. He jumped out of a bush and behind a rock; he peaked out and yelled "Put 'em up Fire Lord!" He jumped up and kicked air above the tree. The air came back and hit Sokka; I grabbed his hand so he wasn't blown off the island.

"Hey! I'm trying to build Oppa and Kaida some armour here so they don't have to go into the invasion naked!" Sokka yelled angrily. "He's your bison." Sokka added.

"Ozai's defence is impeccable; I'll have to try a different approach." Aang said, I rolled my eyes and didn't bother to watch Aang anymore. After a while I saw Aang talking to Momo, I frowned, I saw the others had also noticed this; we all walked over to him. Aang was chirping like Momo.

"Aang? We're all starting to get a little worried about you." Katara said.

"You've been awake too long." Sokka said.

"You are going insane." I said.

"You're acting downright weird." Toph said.

"Look, I appreciate what you guys are saying but the stress and the nightmares, they were just too much, and staying awake is the best way for me to deal with it." Aang said. Momo chirped and Oppa roared. "Guys, come on." Aang said to them. Oppa roared again and Momo chirped. "Sokka? What should we do?" Aang asked Sokka.

"About what?" Sokka asked.

"About that!" Aang said, he pointed at Oppa and Momo; they were still chirping and roaring. We all walked away, not exactly wanting to be a part of whatever was going on inside Aang's head.

When it got dark we had finally finished what we were working on. Toph had made a pear shaped rock and Sokka had gathered lots of sheep wool and laid it on the rock, Katara and I had made a warm mist around it. Aang walked over to it and checked it out. "Oh look, another hallucination, an imaginary bed made out of clouds." Aang said.

"HEY! It's real; we spent hours working on it." Toph said.

"We made it for you, a good night's sleep will probably take the crazy away…we hope." Sokka said.

"Look, you guys keep telling me I need to sleep but I can't, the invasion's tomorrow." Aang said.

"Aang." Katara said.

"No Katara, there's still so much I haven't learned, I don't need sleep, what I need is practice." Aang said "Quick, hit me!"

"I'm not going to hit you." Katara said.

"You want me to do it?" Toph asked, Sokka knocked her shoulder.

"Listen to me, you've been training for this since the day we met, I've seen your progress, you're smart, brave and strong enough." Katara said.

"You really think so?" Aang asked.

"We all think so, you can do this." Sokka said "You're ready."

"You're the man twinkle toes!" Toph said.

"You're one of the strongest people I've ever met." I said.

"Thanks guys." Aang nodded, he yawned. Katara led him down on the bed we made. "You know what, I think I am ready." Aang said, we all smiled as he closed his eyes and finally went to sleep. I curled up in a blanket and into my pet dragon and fire ferret.


	45. Chapter 45

Sokka, Katara and Toph had gotten into their earth kingdom and water tribe clothes, I was staying in my fire nation stuff and so was Aang. Sokka was studying some maps. Aang jumped up "Top of the morning to ya Momo!" he said.

"Sounds like you slept well." Katara said.

"Like a baby moose lion, I'm ready to face the fire lord." Aang grinned.

"So what's your strategy for taking him down? Gonna get your glow on and hit him with a little avatar state action?" Toph asked.

"I can't, when Azula shot me with lightning my seventh chakra was locked, cutting off my connection to all the cosmic energy in the universe." Aang said seriously.

"You know what I just heard? Blah blah spiritual mumbo jumbo blah blah something about space." Toph said.

"Oh no." Katara said. I looked where she was looking; there was heavy fog on the horizon. "Sokka, do you think the fog will delay the invasion?" She asked.

"No, that is the invasion!" Sokka said, I narrowed my eyes and saw ships in amongst the fog. Aang, Toph and I earth bended paths up so that the ships could dock. There were five of them altogether. Katara and Sokka ran to their dad straight after he got off.

"You made it dad!" Katara exclaimed.

"Were you able to locate everyone I told you to find?" Sokka asked.

"I did, but I'm a little worried Sokka, some of these men aren't exactly the warrior type." Hakoda said. I looked past him and saw the swampy water benders.

"Wooooeee! This place ain't nothing like the swamp, what you reckon that is?" one of the benders asked. I saw a rock that he was pointing to "Some kind of fire nation trap what explodes and eats ya?" he asked.

"It's just a rock." Another swamp bender replied.

"Well I'll be." He said.

"Is it just me or are those fellas a little loose in the leaf hat?" Hakoda asked.

"I just wish they would wear pants." Bato said, I looked at them and nodded, they wore leaves.

"Pants are an illusion and so is death." Hue said. We waited for a few more minutes.

"Hi Katara." I heard someone say, I looked around and saw Haru, he had a moustache now!

"Haru! It's so good to see you." Katara said, she ran and hugged him.

"Toph, this is Haru, when we met him his town was controlled by the fire nation so he had to hide his earth bending." Aang explained.

"Katara inspired me and my father to take back our village." Haru said, his father walked up behind him and Katara blushed.

"You helped us find our courage Katara." His father said "Now we're here to help you."

"No way!" Toph said angrily, she turned around and got into a fighting stance. "Is that?" Suddenly she was picked up by none other that Hippo.

"Hippo happy to see blind bandit!" Hippo hugged her.

"You guys here for a rematch?" Toph asked.

"Negatory , the boulder and the Hippo no longer fight for other's entertainment, now we fight for our kingdom!" The Boulder said.

"Sweet." Toph grinned lazily. I heard an explosion on a ship. I looked around and winced, we all ran over to the ship. I saw the mechanist get out of the ship; he was smoking and covered in something. He was soon followed by Teo.

"Teo!" I said "It's great to see you." I smiled; I ran over and hugged him.

"Was that a new invention?" Sokka asked.

"Yes, but unfortunately the capabilities of peanut sauce prove to be a failure." The mechanist said.

"You're making peanut sauce bombs?" Sokka asked.

"They're destructive." Pipsqueak said.

"And delicious!" The Duke said. Momo jumped on them and licked the sauce off of them.

"Were you able to complete construction on the plans I sent you?" Sokka asked.

"Yes I was, and I think the Fire Nation will be quite surprised!" the mechanist answered.

"Aang, my dad and I made this for you." Teo said, he handed Aang a staff. Aang opened it up and revealed a new glider, the wings were quite sleek and it had handles for him to hold easily, this time it was blue.

"A new glider, this is amazing." Aang said happily.

"And as a special feature I added a snack compartment." The mechanist said, he twisted the handle and a few nuts and berries came out of it and fell into his mouth.

"Oh, well I'm sure that'll come in handy." Aang said.

"Hotaru!" I heard Hakoda say. I turned around and saw him walking towards me.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Since the eclipse will block all fire bending Katara wanted me to give you these." Hakoda said, he handed me two pouches to store some bending water.

"Wow, thanks Hakoda." I smiled. I took them off of him. We all went and sat down, the water tribe in one group and earth kingdom in another, then there was Katara, Sokka, Hakoda, Toph, Aang and I at the side. Sokka was going to explain the plan to everybody, he looked really nervous.

"Don't worry, you'll do great." Hakoda said to Sokka. He walked onto the stage that Toph had earth bended with all his scrolls and maps.

"Good morning everyone!" Sokka said, he fell over on stage and dropped all of his scrolls. He scrambled to his feet and gathered all of his things. "Um, so, as you know today we're invading the fire nation! I mean I know you know that because otherwise why else would you be here?" Sokka said, he laughed and carried on "Anyway." He said, he dropped all of his papers again. He picked them up and hung one on the wooden board. "The fire lord's palace is here." Sokka said quickly, he pointed to somewhere on the paper, only it wasn't actually a map, it was a poster "Uh nope, wait, uh wait." He said, he flipped through many papers before he got to the right one "It's here, and uh there's an eclipse today and Aang's gonna fight the fire lord and the fire benders won't have any fire to use so that's good for us! And umm, I'm sorry, um, let me start at the beginning." Sokka said. He then said quickly "Katara, Hotaru and I discovered Aang frozen in iceberg, now I didn't like Aang at first but I grew to love him over time then we went to the southern air temple where Aang used to live and then we met Suki as a Kyoshi warrior."

"Wow, when he says beginning he means the beginning of the beginning." Katara said.

"Then Katara got Haru arrested and now he's grown a moustache which if you look at it from the front row-"Sokka carried on.

"Ok Sokka, its okay, why don't you take a break." Hakoda said, he walked up on stage and Sokka came and sat next to us. "Let me just clarify a few points for everyone, today is the day of black sun and I wanna thank you all for your self-sacrifice and your courage, there are two steps to the invasion. A naval stage and then a land stage, to gain sea access to the Fire Nation Capital we have to get past our first major obstacle here, The Great Gates Of Azulon, next we hit the land and we hit hard, we must fight past their battlements and secure the Plaza Tower, once we do that, it's up to the royal palace, at that point the eclipse will begin." Hakoda explained.

"Excuse me, the boulder is confused, isn't the point to invade during the eclipse when the fire benders are powerless?" the boulder asked.

"The eclipse only lasts eight minutes, which is not enough time for the whole invasion and the royal palace is heavily guarded by fire benders. That is where we'll need the eclipse's advantage the most, when this is finished the avatar would've defeated the fire lord." Hakoda said "We will have control of the Fire Nation capital and this war will be over!" Hakoda said, he was answered by cheers of confidence and determination. We then got ready for war. Katara and I filled our pouches, I left my shoes off, it would help with any earth bending. I then put on Kaida's armour, and it looked really good, it was silver unlike Oppa's which was red and gold. Kaida's armour had swirls all over it. Toph got ready with her earth bender gear; Sokka put his tribe's armour on. Aang shaved his head, revealing his arrow. I had to say, I was really nervous, I'd been in fights before but never played a part in an active war. The boats were then ready to leave, but I was going to swim on Kaida, not on a boat. We were on the lead boat, coming up to The Gates Of Azulon. "There they are, The Great Gates of Azulon." Hakoda said, I saw a statue in the middle of the ocean.

"I don't see any gates." Katara said.

"Katara, you, Hotaru and the swamp benders whip up a fog cover." Bato said, we nodded.

"We'll sneak by them statues just like we sneaked by that fire navy blockade." One of the swamp benders said. We got into formation and brought up a lot of fog around our ships.

"Keep it up, we're almost through!" Hakoda yelled. Suddenly I heard bells; smoke came out of two dragon statues on the land either side of the Azulon statue, nets were brought up, blocking the way and then set on fire. Small fire nation boats came out and sped towards us. "Everyone below deck!" Hakoda yelled, everyone went down. I jumped onto Kaida and we went into the water, I used water bending to make an air bubble around her head and me, like Aang did with Oppa. Kaida actually swum very fast for a dragon, she had a thin body which glided through the water; she used her wings to propel her along. We went under the net. Sokka's invention was a giant whale-like boat that swum underwater. They used water bending to make the contraptions sink and float. I was told that before we land on the beaches we needed to resurface. We resurfaced in the middle of the water, Kaida curled up on the top of one of the contraptions. We all met with Aang on one of the boats.

"So, this is it huh?" Aang asked.

"Are you ready for the fire nation to know the avatar's alive?" Sokka asked.

"I'm ready." Aang nodded. We all had a nice group hug with Momo and Patch.

"I hope you kick some serious fire lord butt Twinkle Toes." Toph said.

"Everyone listen up, the next time we resurface it'll be on the beaches so stay alert and fight smart, now break time's over, back in the subs." Hakoda said. I nodded and got onto Kaida.

"You ready?" I asked her.

"Yes." She answered.

"Are you scared?" I asked.

"Terrified." She answered. I smiled and hugged her neck.

"We'll be fine." I reassured.

"I know." She said "I'm glad you're my master."

"I am not your master." I said.

"Huh?" she asked.

"I'm your friend." I said.

"I know." She said. I hugged her one last time and got on her neck behind her head, holding her horns. I saw Aang fly away on his glider and Katara get on Oppa. I made a bubble of air around Kaida and I and then we went back under water. We soon got to the wall in front of the beach, the fire nation saw us and rung their warning bells. They attacked the ships with spiked chains; Kaida had an easy time dodging them, Oppa, not so much. The ships fired torpedoes at the grates in the wall, we then went through those holes and then came up to the surface, and torpedoes were then fired at us. We landed easily but our ships burned. Tanks with earth benders in came out of the ships and we all attacked.

We were on the middle of a path, with two walls either side, battle towers lined those walls. Tanks were deployed from the walls, the fire benders in the tanks fire at our long tanks. Our tanks destroyed the battle towers on the floor by crushing them. There were trucks with barrels of water for the swamp benders. After a while I saw Hue, but he was dressed as a giant monster surrounded by seaweed, with a scary wooden mask on, he looked like he did when we first met him in the swamp, but ten times bigger. He grabbed a tank and threw it at a battle tower, it went BANG!

"Hey Hue!" one of the swamp benders waved lamely "Where you been?"

"Communin with nature, takes a while to collect this much seaweed." Hue answered. Soon soldiers on komodo rhinos came out. Our trucks with bendables on them were being destroyed, so were some of our tanks, and Hue was having a hard time as well and it was all those darn battle towers. I flew on Kaida while Katara, Hakoda and Sokka flew on Oppa; we were taking out the battle towers. I jumped off of Kaida and into a battle tower, I threw the soldiers out of the tower and cut the guns off with a water whip, I ran out and saw Kaida on the roof of another tower, she put her head through the window where the guns were coming out and threw the soldiers out and bit off the guns, she flew back over and I jumped on her back, we kept doing this. I looked over at Sokka and Katara, they were between two destroyed towers, they're dad was on the floor. I flew over as fast as I could and landed next to them. We got Hakoda onto Oppa and went to a protected place and laid him down on the floor. Katara took out some water and put it on a large gash in his side and let it start to heal him.

"How does that feel dad?" She asked.

"A little better, I need to get back to the troops." He mumbled, he tried to get up but we led him back down.

"You're hurt, badly, you can't fight anymore." Katara said.

"Everyone's counting on me to lead this mission Katara, I won't let them down." Hakoda said. He tried to get up but winced, groaned and fell back down.

"Can't you heal him any faster?" Sokka pleaded.

"I'll help." I said, I took out some water and got to work with Katara.

"We're doing everything we can." Katara said.

"I'll do it." Sokka said.

"No offence Sokka but you're not exactly Mr. Healing Hands." Katara said.

"No, I'll lead the invasion force." Sokka said.

"Don't be crazy Sokka." I said.

"Maybe I am a little crazy but the eclipse is about to start and we need to be up that volcano by the time it does." Sokka said, I looked up, the city where the palace was, was inside a volcano.

"You can do this, I'm proud of you son." Hakoda said.

"I think you're crazy but I'm proud of you too." Katara said. Sokka got up onto Oppa.

"Yip yip." He said and flew off.

"Hotaru, go and take out some more battle towers." Katara said.

"Right." I nodded. I hopped onto Kaida and also flew away. I took out a lot more battle towers with Kaida. When I came out of the last one I saw the tanks in wedge formation with the warriors and benders in the middle, Sokka was out in front of all of them on Oppa. I hovered above them all on Kaida.

"CHARGE!" Sokka yelled. We finally got to the tower and busted through the wall with barrels of exploding jelly.

"The fire nation is falling back!" Haru's dad yelled.

"We're on our way to victory!" Bato said. I looked up, we were so close to the palace.


	46. Chapter 46

The people in the wall were attacking us now. Bato, Sokka, Toph and I were behind one of our tanks hunched over a map. I saw Katara and Hakoda walk over. "Dad!" Sokka exclaimed "You're on your feet again!"

"Thanks to your sister, I'm in no shape to fight but maybe there's some way I can help." Hakoda asked.

"Everything's going smoothly and the eclipse hasn't even kicked in yet." I said.

"Let's hope our luck holds out." Hakoda said. I saw Katara looking up at the mountain "Katara, you seem distracted? Is something wrong?" Hakoda asked.

"Yeah, is that-is that Aang?" Katara asked. I looked up and saw something flying through the air.

"What?!" Sokka asked. He came down and landed next to us. "Please tell me you're here because the fire lord turned out to be a big wimp and you didn't even need the eclipse to take him down?" Sokka asked hopefully.

"He wasn't home, no one was, the entire palace city is abandoned." Aang said.

"They knew." Sokka gasped.

"It's over; the fire lord is probably long gone, far away on some remote island where he'll be safe during the eclipse." Aang said.

"No, my instincts tell me he wouldn't go too far, he would have a secret bunker, somewhere he would go and be safe during the siege but still be close enough to lead his nation." Sokka said "Hotaru, do you know anywhere like that?"

"Nope, I ran away from here when I was ten remember?" I asked.

"Wait, if it's an underground secret bunker we're looking for I'm just the girl to find it." Toph smiled.

"The mechanist gave me this timing device, it looks like we've got about ten minutes until the full eclipse." Sokka said "That means ten minutes to find the fire lord."

"We can still do this; we can still win the day." Aang said.

"Wait, if they knew we were coming it could all be a trap." Katara said "Maybe we should use the time we have left to make sure we all get out of here safely." She suggested.

"Everyone who's here today came prepared to risk everything or this mission; they know what's at stake. If there's still a chance and there's still hope I think they would want Aang to go for it." Hakoda said.

"What do you think?" Sokka asked "You're the one who has to face the fire lord, whatever you decide I'm with you." He said to Aang.

"I've got to try." Aang said, determination was all I could hear. I flew on Kaida and the other flew on Oppa, we landed on the side of the volcano.

"Do you feel anything down there?" I asked Toph.

"Yep, there are natural tunnels crossing through the inside of the volcano." Toph informed us.

"Anything else? Is there a structure somewhere?" Sokka asked. She shoved her fists into the ground.

"There's something big, dense and made of metal deep in the heart of the volcano." Toph said.

"Sounds like a secret bunker to me." Sokka said. Toph used her earth bending to make a tunnel for us. We made Oppa, Kaida, Patch and Momo wait outside.

"Stay safe, we'll be back soon." Aang said.

"See ya girl." I smiled at Kaida.

"Don't make any reckless decisions." Kaida said.

"I make no promises." I grinned before diving in after the others. Toph felt the ground.

"This way, that one's a dead end!" She said and ran right.

"What would we do without you?!" Sokka asked. We walked through places with lava.

"Perish in burning hot magma." Toph answered.

"Yea pretty much!" Sokka said, he shuffled around a pool of magma. We soon came to a small cavern; spouts of scorching hot air spurted out of different places.

"The tunnel continues on the other side." Toph said "And it leads right to the bunker."

"We'll have to be fast but careful." Sokka said, he went to walk forward; a giant fountain of magma spurted up, he screamed and fell backwards. Aang made the magma into a pillar of rock by cooling it down with fire bending.

"How is that careful?" Aang asked.

"I was wrong; we need to be fast, careful and lucky." Sokka said. We ran through close to each other, Toph and Sokka dodged the magma, I kept most of it away with fire bending and Aang cooled the magma into rock with air bending. We finally got to the other side and looked down, no path, just a big pool of lava. I wiped some sweat from my forehead. "There's no floor, it's just a river of lava." Sokka said. Aang opened his gilder.

"Climb aboard and hold on tight." Aang said, we grabbed onto his glider and he flew us across, Sokka was screaming the whole way, we dodged bubbles and fountains of lava and landed on the path at the other side and kept going. We got to a massive metal chamber with a door.

"That is some door!" Sokka exclaimed. Toph walked over to the door and knocked on it and listened.

"Not a problem." She said. She took a few steps back and ran at the door; she punched it and then opened it up.

"I am so glad we added you to the group!" Sokka said. We carried on running, Sokka then asked me "Is your fire bending still you know, working?" I shrugged and lit a flame on my hand, it was still there but it was getting weaker.

"I think we only have a few minutes." I said, I was so happy that Katara had gotten me these water bottles. We ran through a tunnel that ran alongside another one and connected. I heard whistling, we ran out and saw a random old guy. He gasped, we turned around, I got into a fighting stance with the others. He gasped and put his hands in the air.

"The fire lord's chamber is that way, down the hall, to the left, up the stairs, you can't miss it!" he said quickly.

"Thanks!" Aang chirped, as we walked away I made the 'I got my eye on you' signal to him, he gulped. We ran where he told us to go, as we were running Sokka pulled out his time thingy.

"Only thirty seconds until the total eclipse." He said. I lit a flame above my palm, it was weak.

"I'll miss you fire." I said. We got to a big copper door with a fire nation insignia on it. Aang took a deep breath in and let it out.

"I'm ready." He said "I'm ready to face the fire lord." He whipped a strong blast of wind up and knocked the doors down. The room was long and narrow and had torches, there was a throne at the end of the room.

"So, you are alive after all." I saw the person on the throne say, only it wasn't dad, it was Azula! "I had a hunch that you survived, but it doesn't matter, I've known about the invasion for months." She said wickedly. I could feel the power of my fire bending waning as more seconds passed, but hey, I always had water and earth!

"Where is he?! Where's the fire lord?!" Aang demanded.

"Hmmmmm, you mean I'm not good enough for you? You're hurting my feelings." Azula said.

"Stop wasting our time and give us the information." Sokka said "You're powerless right now so you're in no position to refuse."

"And stick to the truth, I'll be able to tell if you're lying." Toph said.

"Are you sure? I'm a pretty good liar…I am a 400 foot tall purple platypus bear with pink horns and silver wings." Azula said.

"Okay you're good I admit it." Toph said. She encased Azula in rock. "But you really ought to consider telling the truth anyway." The rock shattered and Azula got out with a smirk on her face. She brushed herself off.

"When I left Ba Sing Se I brought home some souvenirs." Azula said, two people dropped down from the ceiling "Dai Li agents."Aang jumped forward and sent a wave of air at Azula; a rock wall was brought up in front of her from the floor. I frowned; I had had enough of this nonsense! I broke through the wall easily and we all ran forward. A pillar of earth propelled me into the air, I went into a ball and my feet landed on the wall, I pushed off and came to a rolling stop. I uncorked my water bottles and got two water tentacles along my arms. I whipped one of the Dai Li's feet, it was frozen to the ground, the other Dai Li agent freed him. I looked just in time to see Toph attack Azula, Azula pushed off of the rock and landed gracefully on the throne. Aang ran at Azula, a Dai Li agent ran across the wall and landed in front of her, he brought up a large wall of rock in front of him and Azula. Aang went through feet first and knocked the Dai Li agent over the wall. He destroyed the throne, Azula cart wheeled out of the way. I saw her run back out behind the wall. She weaved between the metal pillars around the edge of the room, being followed by Aang the whole time. She slid down a broken pillar and landed on the floor, Toph, Aang and I ran after her. A Dai Li agent ran in front of her and gave her a boost away from us. She ran towards the broken door. I jumped through a hole in the wall where Sokka had taken the whole fight to get to and followed Azula.

"I can't pin her down, she's too quick!" Aang said. I saw Azula and the Dai Li agent run through the door, the Dai Li agent blocked the entrance with an earth wall. I grinned and ran through it head first.

"Good job ash weasel." Toph said.

"Thanks mud slug." I replied. Toph ran forward and metal bended a Dai Li agent into a metal pillar.

"Wait Aang, Hotaru, Toph." Sokka said. We stopped and looked at him. "Stop attacking, don't you see what she's doing? She's just playing with us, she's not even trying to win this fight!"

"Not true, I'm giving it my all." Azula said.

"You're trying to keep us here and waste all our time!" Toph said.

"Um right, I think you're friend there just said that genius and since you can't see I should tell you I'm rolling my eyes." Azula said.

"I'll roll your whole head!" Toph yelled.

"I'll be glad to help!" I said angrily.

"She's just baiting you again." Sokka said.

"Okay so what do we do? Just ignore her?" Aang asked.

"We don't have a choice, we just have to get out of here and find the fire lord on our own somehow." Sokka said. We nodded in agreement and started to run in the opposite direction from Azula.

"It's a trap; don't say I didn't warn you." Azula said. Toph, Aang and I looked back at her.

"IGNORE!" Sokka said without looking back.

"So, Sokka's your name right? My favourite prisoner used to mention you all the time. She was convinced you were going to come rescue her of course you never came." Azula laughed "And she gave up on you." She grinned darkly. I saw a tear run down Sokka' cheek. He ran at Azula in pure rage. Azula smirked. Toph kicked a rock out of the ground and locked Azula's wrist against the wall. Sokka pinned her up and looked her in the eye.

"Where is Suki?!" he growled. I felt the fire bending coming back, Sokka needed to hurry up! Azula just smirked and didn't answer "Where's Suki?!" he demanded "Answer me!"

"Sokka, she won't talk." Aang said.

"WHERE ARE YOU KEEPING HER?!" Sokka yelled. I heard a rumbling quite near to us.

"Oh, sounds like the fire bending's back on." Azula said happily. She kicked up at Sokka, sending flames at him; I grabbed his shirt and dragged him backwards. I put the water back into my bottles. She broke out of her rock shackles. Aang jumped out the way of one of her attacks. "Dad's all the way at the end of the hall and then down the secret stairway on the left, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to see you now." Azula said. She ran away from us.

"I fell for it! I used up all our time!" Sokka said unhappily.

"It's not your fault Sokka, Azula was ready for us, she had every move planned out." Toph said.

"Yeah, that's Azula for you." I said angrily.

"Nice family you got there by the way." Sokka said "But now it's too late."

"Maybe it's not too late, the eclipse is over but I can face the fire lord anyway." Aang said.

"No, I don't think that's a good idea." Sokka said.

"But I'm ready, I came here with a job to do and everyone's counting on me." Aang said.

"The Fire Lord knew we were coming this time, we thought we had surprise on our side but we didn't, it just wasn't our day, what we need to do now is go help our friends." I said.

"I guess you guys are right." Aang said sadly.

"You'll have another chance, I know you will." Sokka said. We ran outside the volcano and got onto our animals, we flew back to the others, on the way I explained to Kaida what had happened, when I looked up I saw war balloons like the ones the mechanist made. There were also bigger and more improved air balloons as well. We landed down on the ground and saw Katara. "It was all a trap, Azula knew we were coming and she's plotted out every move! We've just gotta get to the beach as fast as we can, if we can make it to the submarines then maybe we can get away safely." Sokka said.

"They've got air power but so do I." Aang said. He flipped out his glider and said "I'm gonna do what I can to slow them down." He flew off.

"Oppa, you and I can help too." Katara said.

"Count us in!" I said. Patch crawled into my pocket and I got onto Kaida. We flew up to where all the massive war balloons were. I saw Aang dive through a war balloon and it went crashing to the ground, I saw another war balloon, Kaida just went straight for it, she dived through it and made a big hole so that the balloon went down. Katara sliced the top off of another with water bending. Next were the big ones. Fire was shot at us from all angles. I saw Oppa get hit and fall back, even with Kaida's sleek body we got hit, the hair on her tail got burnt. I opened my water bottle and soothed the end of her tail.

"We can't hold them all back." Katara said, we were all flying alongside each other.

"There are too many of them." I agreed.

"Let's join the others." Aang said.

"Right." I nodded. We flew and landed with the others.

"Try and find cover, I think we're about to see some bombs!" Sokka said, I looked up and saw a canon. Toph earth bent a shield over us from the mountain. I heard and saw explosions all around us, Toph's shield cracked and threatened to fall down, I shot up a rock support for the shield. I saw the war balloons carry on forward, in front of our army.

"Why aren't they turning around to attack us again?" Katara asked.

"They're headed for the beach." Aang said. "THEY'RE GONNA DESTROY THE SUBMARINES!" Aang said.

"How are we all gonna escape?" Sokka asked.

"Man, sure sucks to be us doesn't it?" I said. The others looked at me with blank expressions.

"We're not." Hakoda said.

"Then our only choice is to stand and fight." Sokka said "We have the avatar, we can still win."

"Yes, with the avatar we could still win on another day, you kids have to leave; you have to escape on Oppa and Kaida together." Hakoda said.

"What? We can't leave you behind, we won't leave anyone behind!" Katara said.

"You're our only chance in the long run, you and Sokka have to go with Aang somewhere safe, it's the only way to keep hope alive." Hakoda said.

"The youngest of our group should go with you, the adults will star behind and surrender, we'll be prisoners but we'll all survive this battle." Bato said.

"I've got some experience with Fire Nation prisons, it's not going to be easy but we'll get by." Haru's dad said.

"They're at the beach already!" Sokka exclaimed, I spun around just in time to see the swamp benders fight back the bombs but it didn't work for long, our submarines were destroyed. Oppa could carry more than Kaida so only Teo and I went onto Kaida; I gave him a boost up with earth bending. His dad hugged him.

"Goodbye son." His dad said.

"Bye dad, I'm really proud of you." Teo said. The Duke was lifted onto Oppa by Pipsqueak.

"I'll miss you Pipsqueak." The duke said.

"Take care The Duke." Pipsqueak said. Haru hugged his dad.

"We'll be back for you dad." Haru said.

"That's if we don't escape on our own first." His dad replied. Haru climbed onto Oppa.

"We lost today but we've never been this close." Hakoda said to Katara and Sokka "We tasted victory and that counts for something."

"We'll miss you dad." Katara said, she threw her arms around Hakoda.

"Bye dad." Sokka said sadly, he hugged Hakoda as well "We won't be apart for too long this time, I promise."I looked over at Aang and saw him crying.

"Thank you all for being so brave and so strong! I'm gonna make this up to you!" Aang declared. Oppa and Kaida then flew away with the rest of us on them. I wiped away my tears, my real family hated me, these people were the closest thing I had. "I know just the place for us to go where we'll be safe for a while, The Western Air temple!" Aang said. I nodded and followed Aang.


	47. Chapter 47

We were walking across the ground and away from our families. "This is humiliating." Katara said.

"Do you mean getting thoroughly spanked by the Fire Nation or having to walk all the way to the Western Air Temple?" Sokka asked.

"Both." Katara sighed.

"Sorry guys but Oppa get tired carrying all these people." Aang said.

"Kaida may be a dragon but she gets tired too." I said, I hugged her neck.

"I wonder how the rest of the troops are?" Teo wondered.

"They're probably on their way to a prison, seems like my dad just got out, now he's going back in." Haru said glumly.

"I miss Pipsqueak." The Duke said.

"I miss not having blisters on my feet." Sokka said.

"Hey, we're here!" Toph said. I looked around; we were at the edge of a cliff? "I can feel it!"

"Uh, I think your feet need their eyes checked." Katara said.

"No, she's right, we are here!" Aang said.

"Wow, it's amazing." Toph said. We hopped onto Kaida and Oppa so that they could carry us down, when we got below the cliff it was amazing, there were upside down buildings everywhere. We landed by a small fountain.

"It's so different from the Northern Air Temple." Teo said "I wonder if there are any secret rooms?"

"Let's go check it out!" Haru said. Teo, The Duke, Aang and I started to run after Haru. Katara stopped us from going.

"You guys go, I think we need to talk about some things." Katara said to them.

"I'll race you Duke." Haru said.

"I told you! It's _The _Duke!" The Duke said.

"Why can't we go?" Aang complained.

"We need to decide what we're gonna do now and since you're the avatar maybe you should be a part of this." Toph said. Aang and I sat down on a rock bench.

"Fair enough, so what's the new plan?" Aang asked.

"Well, if you ask me, the new plan is the old plan! You just need to master all four elements and confront the fire lord before the comet comes." Sokka said.

"Oh yeah, that's great, no problem, I'll just do that." Aang said.

"Aang, no one said it's gonna be easy." Katara said.

"Well it's not even gonna be possible, where am I supposed to get a fire bending teacher?" Aang asked.

"Hotaru could teach you?" Sokka suggested.

"I can't even fire bend properly yet." I said.

"We could look for Jeong Jeong?" Katara asked.

"Yeah, right, like we'll ever run into Jeong Jeong again!" Aang said.

"Who's…oh never mind, if it's important I'll find out." Toph said.

"Oh well, guess we can't come up with anybody, why don't we just take a nice tour around the temple?!" Aang asked, he jumped off the edge with his glider.

"What's up with him?" Toph asked.

"There's gotta be someone who can teach him fire bending." Sokka pondered. We jumped onto Oppa and Kaida, who now had their armour off, and followed Aang through the air.

"Aang, can we talk about you learning fire bending now?" Katara asked.

"What?! The wind is too loud in my ears! Check out this loop!" Aang yelled. He did a loop in midair.

"Aang! I think we should be making some plans about our future!" Sokka said.

"Okay, we can do that while I show you the giant Pai Sho table!" Aang said "Oh and you're going to love the all day echo chamber." He said, we then landed on the ground by the fountain.

"I think that'll have to wait." Toph said, I frowned. She pointed backwards, Oppa moved and revealed Zuko!

"Hello, Zuko here." He waved. We all got into a fighting stance. "Hey, I heard you guys flying around down there so I just thought I'd wait for you here." Zuko said, Oppa walked over to Zuko and licked him. "I know you must be surprised to see me here." Zuko said.

"Not really since you've followed us all over the world." Sokka said.

"Right, well uh, anyway, what I wanted to tell you about is that I've changed and I uh, I'm good now and well I think I should join your group and oh, I can teach fire bending to you two." Zuko said, he gestured to Aang and I. "See, I uh." He stuttered.

"You wanna what now?!" Toph asked.

"You can't possibly think that any of us would trust you can you?!" Katara asked angrily "I mean how stupid do you think we are?!"

"Yeah, all you've ever done is try to hunt us down and capture Aang!" Sokka said.

"I've done some good things, I mean, I could have stolen your bison from Ba Sing Se but I set him free, that's something!" Zuko said. Oppa licked him again.

"Oppa does seem to like him." Toph said.

"He probably just covered himself in honey or something so that Oppa would lick him. I'm not buying it." Sokka said.

"I can understand why you wouldn't trust me and I know I've made some mistakes in the past." Zuko said.

"Like when you attacked our village?!" Sokka asked.

"Or when you stole my mother's necklace and used it to track us down and capture us?!" Katara asked.

"Or when you tried to kill your own sister?!" I asked, with tears in my eyes.

"Look, I admit I've done some awful things, I was wrong to try to capture you, I'm sorry that I attacked the water tribe and I'm sorry that I tried to kill family who hasn't done anything wrong and I never should have sent that Fire Nation Assassin after you." Zuko said "I'm gonna try to stop h-"

"Wait! You sent combustion man after us?!" Sokka asked.

"Well, that's not his name but-"Zuko started.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to insult your friend!" Sokka said.

"He's not my friend!" Zuko retaliated.

"That guy locked me and Katara up in jail and tried to blow us all up!" Toph yelled.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" Zuko asked Aang "You once said you thought we could be friends." He shrugged, that was right, it was after Zuko and I had gotten Aang out of Zhao's prison, but then he shot fire at us. "You know I have good in me."Aang looked at the rest of us, Sokka shook his head, Toph and I shrugged and Katara kept her eyes glued on Zuko.

"There's no way we can trust you after everything you've done." Aang said "We'll never let you join us." He said. I looked at Zuko's face, he looked broken and empty, like nothing was in him except resentment and sorrow, I looked away.

"You need to get out of here." Katara said "Now!"

"I'm trying to explain that I'm not that person anymore!" Zuko said, he started to walk towards us.

"Either you leave or we attack." Sokka said.

"If you won't accept me as a friend then maybe you'll take me as a prisoner." Zuko said. He went down on his knees, I felt tears pouring down my cheeks, I know Zuko, this must be so hard for him, to swallow his pride and ask to be taken as a prisoner.

"No, we won't!" Katara said, she pulled out water and knocked him back. "Get out of here and don't come back and if we ever see you again well, we better not see you again!" Katara said. He got up and walked away. I walked over to the edge of the cliff and sat down, I curled my knees up to my chest and shook slightly, this was so confusing, it was messing up my head! The others came over and hugged me. I looked back and saw Zuko walking away, he looked back as well, his eyes met mine and I swear I saw regret on his face, he turned around and walked away. Once he was away we sat down. "Why would he try to fool us like that?" Katara asked.

"Obviously he wants to lead us into some kind of trap." Sokka said.

"This is just like when we were in prison together in Ba Sing Se, he starts talking about his mother and making it seem like he's an actual human being with feelings." Katara said.

"Don't talk about my mother." I choked.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Just don't!" I yelled. She gasped and nodded. "Sorry for shouting." I whispered.

"He wants you to trust him and feel bad for him so when your guard's down he strikes!" Sokka said.

"The thing is, it worked, I did feel sorry for him, I felt like he was really confused and hurt but obviously when the time came he made his choice and we paid the price." Katara said "We can't trust him."

"I kind of have a confession to make. Remember when you two were sick and I got captured by Zhao?" Aang asked.

"And you made us suck on frozen frogs?! How could I forget, I had a wart on that flap that hangs down from the back of my throat for a month!" Sokka said.

"Sokka I looked at it and told you there was nothing there!" Katara said.

"I could feel it, it's my throatal flap!" Sokka said.

"Anyway, when Zhao had me chained up it was Zuko who came in and got me out." Aang said.

"True, I went in as well, but I would have only got to the first set of guards without Zuko." I said.

"He risked his life to save me." Aang said.

"No way. I'm sure he only did it so he could capture you himself!" Katara said.

"Yeah, face it Aang, you're nothing but a big prize to him." Sokka said.

"You're probably right." Aang said.

"And what was all that crazy stuff about setting Oppa free?!" Katara asked.

"What a liar!" Katara said.

"Actually, he wasn't lying." Toph said.

"I know, when I looked at him, it couldn't have been fake, his eyes held pain." I said sadly.

"Oh hooray! In a lifetime of evil at least he didn't add animal cruelty to the list." Sokka said sarcastically.

"I'm just saying that considering his messed up family," Toph said, I stamped my foot in slight annoyance "Apart from you Hotaru, and how he was raised he could've turned out a lot worse."

"You're right Toph, let's go find him and give him a medal, the not as much of a jerk as you could have been award!" Katara said.

"All I know is that while he was talking to us he was sincere, maybe you're all just letting your hurt feelings keep you from thinking clearly." Toph said.

"Easy for you to say, you weren't there when he had us attacked by pirates!" Katara said.

"Or burned down Kyoshi Island!" Sokka said.

"Or when he tried to capture me at the fire temple!" Aang said.

"Why would you even try to defend him?!" Katara demanded.

"Because Katara, you're all ignoring one crucial fact, both Aang and Hotaru need a fire bending teacher, we can't think of a single person in the world to do the job, now one shows up on a silver platter and you won't even think about it?!" Toph asked angrily, she stamped her foot on the floor.

"I'm not having Zuko as my teacher!" Aang said.

"Hotaru?" Toph asked.

"I-I don't know." I stuttered.

"You're darn right you're not buddy." Sokka said.

"Well, I guess that's settled." Katara said. Toph growled and turned around.

"I'm beginning to wonder who's really the blind one out here." Toph growled, she stormed off.

The next morning while Katara was dishing out rice I asked "Has anyone seen Toph?"

"I haven't seen her since she stormed off yesterday." Sokka said.

"Maybe she's just exploring the air temple; there are some pretty fun spots to practice earth bending." Haru said.

"I think we should go look for her." I said, she was my best friend after all.

"Ah let her have fun with her rocks, I'm in no rush to have her yelling at us again." Sokka said.

"We can go check for her?" The Duke asked.

"Yeah, I wanna ride that tunnel down the hall of statues again; it'll work a lot better now that I fixed my breaks." Teo said.

"Speaking of that, be careful this time, it took me ages to bandage you up last night." I scolded; he had a bandage around his head. He, Haru and The Duke went to go and look for Toph. I suddenly heard a rumbling, I heard a massive crash and looked around, Toph crawled out of a tunnel she had made. She fell down the rocks and to the floor.

"Toph!" Katara said.

"What happened?" I asked.

"My feet got burned." Toph said.

"Oh no, what happened?" Katara asked.

"I just told you, my feet got burned." Toph said, both Katara and I went around and held Toph's feet up.

"I meant how?" Katara said.

"Well, I kind of went to see Zuko last night." Toph said.

"You what?!" Aang yelled.

"Zuko?" Katara asked. Sokka just moaned.

"I just thought he could be helpful to us and if I talk to him maybe we could work something out?" Toph said, Katara and I tried to heal Toph with some water.

"So he attacked you?!" Sokka asked.

"Well he did and he didn't, it was sort of an accident." Toph said.

"But he did fire bend at you?" I asked.

Toph sighed angrily and said "Yes."

"See, you trusted Zuko and you got burned…literally!" Sokka said.

"It's gonna take a while for your feet to get better, I wish we could've worked on them sooner." Katara said, we pulled our water off of her feet and saw that her burns were still there.

"Yeah me too." Toph said.

"Zuko's clearly too dangerous to be left alone, we're gonna have to go after him." Sokka said.

"I hate to go looking for a fight but you're right, after what he did to Toph I don't think we have a choice." Aang said.

"He's crafty but we'll find a way to capture him." Sokka said.

"Maybe just invite him back here? He's already offered himself off as a prisoner once." Toph suggested.

"Yeah, get him to come back and say he'll be our prisoner then we'll jump him and really make him our prisoner! He'll never suspect it!" Sokka said. I face palmed, idiot.

"You are a master of surprise Sokka." Katara said sarcastically. We lowered Toph into the fountain so her feet were in the cold water.

"Ahhhhh, that's the stuff, now I know how the rest of you guys feel, not being able to see with your feet stinks." Toph said. Aang brought some towels round so we could try and wash some of the dirt out of Toph's burns. Suddenly there was a massive explosion above us. We grabbed Toph out of the fountan.

"STOP! I don't want you hunting the avatar anymore!" I hear Zuko yelled, I looked up and saw Zuko yelling at Combustion Man. "The mission is off, I'm ordering you to stop." Zuko said, Combustion Man pushed him out of the way. The man destroyed the top of the fountain. "If you keep attacking I won't pay you!" Zuko yelled. Combustion man grabbed Zuko's shirt and lifted him off the floor. "Alright, I'll pay you double! To stop!" Zuko yelled. Combustion Man fired again, he almost hit us. He then turned to Zuko, oh no. He took a breath in and went to blow up Zuko, Zuko made a fire shield around him, although he was pushed off the edge of the ledge by the force of the blast. I chewed my lip, I couldn't see whether he was okay or not because there was a load of smoke. A small breeze passed and I saw Zuko hanging off of a vine, he was okay, I gave a sigh of relief. Combustion Man turned back to us. Aang ran out from behind the fountain and whipped up a tornado and sent it at Combustion Man. Combustion man jumped over the tornado and shot at Aang, Aang flipped out of the way. Combustion Man jumped onto a ledge and fired at us, rocks fell down all around us. Katara and I brought up a wave of water from the fountain and made ice shard daggers shoot at the Man, he crouched down and they all shattered against him, I gawped, was this guy even human?! We quickly ran behind a wall so he couldn't see us. I heard a pillar be blown up quite close to us.

"He's gonna blast this whole place right off the Cliffside!" Toph said. Katara looked around the edge of the wall, another explosion.

"I can't step out to water bend at him without getting blown up." Katara said "And I can't get a good enough angle on him from down here!"

"I know how to get an angle on him!" Sokka said excitedly, he pushed past Katara and took out his boomerang. He poked his head out suspiciously, Combustion Man fired again. Sokka aimed and said "Okay buddy, don't fail me now." He then threw out his boomerang, it flew round the corner, Sokka peaked round again and fist punched the air, he jumped out and caught his boomerang. We all ran out after him. "Yeah! Boomerang!" Sokka yelled. I looked up and saw Combustion man get back up off of the floor "Awwww, boomerang." Sokka moaned. We went to go back behind the wall. I heard a big explosion but it wasn't near us, I looked around the corner and saw a cloud of smoke, a metal arm flew out of the cloud. We ran out and looked down, the building he was on fell down into the deep chasm below us. We looked at each other in disbelief. I saw Haru, Teo and The Duke poke their head out from another wall; they looked just as surprised as us. I looked up and saw that Zuko had just climbed to safety.

We waited for Zuko, he walked over to us. "I can't believe I'm saying this but thanks Zuko." Aang said, Zuko had warned us that Combustion Man was there by yelling at him so if he hadn't done that we would be dead.

"Hey, what about me, I did the boomerang thing." Sokka acknowledged himself.

"Listen, I know I didn't explain myself very well yesterday, I've been through a lot in the past few years and it's been hard but I'm realising that I had to go through all those things to learn the truth. I thought I had lost my honour and that somehow my father could return it to me but I know now that no one can give you your honour, it's something you earn for yourself by choosing to do what's right, all I want now is to play my part in ending this war and I know my destiny is to help you restore balance to the world." Zuko said, he turned to Toph "I'm sorry for what I did to you, it was an accident, fire can be dangerous and wild so as a fire bender I need to be more careful and control my bending so I don't hurt people unintentionally." He said.

"I think you are supposed to be my fire bending teacher, when I first tried to learn fire bending I burned Katara and after that I never wanted to fire bend again, but now I know you understand you know it feels to hurt the people you love." Aang said, he bowed to Zuko "I would like you to teach me." He said.

"Thank you. I'm so happy you've accepted me into your group." Zuko said.

"Not so fast, I still have to ask my friends if it's okay with them." Aang said, he turned to Toph "Toph, you're the one that Zuko burned, what do you think?"

"Go ahead and let him join, it'll give me plenty of time to get back at him for burning my feet." Toph said.

"Sokka?" Aang asked.

"Hey, all I want is to defeat the Fire Lord, if you think this is the way to do it then I'm all for it." Sokka shrugged.

"Katara?" Aang asked I looked at Katara, she looked angry; she didn't like Zuko more than the rest of us.

"I'll go along with whatever you think is right." Katara said.

"Hotaru? You're his sister, what do you think about this?" Aang asked. I looked at Zuko; I saw something I hadn't seen before in him, it was hope.

"Fine." I said "New training dummy for me." I grinned.

"I won't let you down, I promise." Zuko said enthusiastically, we nodded solemnly. Sokka and I picked up Toph and carried her away with Aang and Katara. Sokka and I put Toph in her room and Sokka took Zuko to his room. I also realised that Zuko hadn't met Kaida yet, that should be interesting.


End file.
